Prolific, pioneering heart surgeon Diethrich, 81, dies of brain cancer
Edward “Ted” Diethrich, the highprofile cardiac surgeon who started the Arizona Heart Institute and once performed open-heart surgery on live television, has died of brain cancer. He was 81.
Diethrich had said in interviews he believed his head tumors came from exposure to radiation during surgeries, using an imaging technique he helped pioneer. Diethrich took part in a documentary in 2015 called “Invisible Impact” that aimed to bring awareness of the dangers of chronic low-level exposure to radiation among medical professionals.
“I’m kind of a living example of excessive radiation and what it can do to tissue,” he said in the brief documentary.
Diethrich had his first job at a hospital at age 15 at the Hillsdale, Michigan, hos-
pital where his mother worked. He emptied bedpans for a quarter an hour.
He earned his medical degree at the University of Michigan, then moved to the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. There, he worked alongside the surgeon Michael DeBakey, a pioneer in heart-surgery techniques.
Diethrich arrived in Phoenix at 35, a rising star in his profession whose presence would upend the medical community. In the deal that created the Arizona Heart Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Diethrich had the right to choose the surgeons who worked at the center. Doctors who weren’t picked reportedly bristled with professional jealousy.
A 1972 Life magazine profile did not make his acceptance in the medical community any easier. The photo spread showed Diethrich not only performing surgery, but also water skiing. It gave the doctor the nickname “Ted Terrific.”
Diethrich, reflecting on his early years in Phoenix during a 1991 interview with the Phoenix Gazette, said he did have a bent toward being high-profile. But, he said, he thought it crucial to speak directly to the public about heart disease and how it could be prevented.
“I don’t think I am low-key,” he told the Gazette. “I have high energy.”
Diethrich was popular among patients who flocked to his facility. In the first five months of operation, the institute performed 400 diagnostic and surgical procedures. One-third of those patients came to Phoenix from out of state.
Diethrich became the go-to doctor for high-profile patients, including the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Scali, and televangelist Billy Graham.
Diethrich also performed surgery to remove blockage in the arteries of thenU.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1982.
Afterward, he held a news conference showing reporters footage of the surgery, including Goldwater’s beating heart.
In February 1983, Diethrich gave the public an unprecedented look at openheart surgery when he performed one live on prime-time television.
The two-hour telecast, called “The Operation,” was aired live on KAET-TV (Channel 8) and aired on nearly 100 other PBS stations across the country and on the British Broadcasting Company. Some aired it live, others on tape-delay.
The patient, a retired insurance salesman named Bernard Schuler, was quoted before the operation as saying he was more nervous about the television exposure than the surgery.
Diethrich narrated the surgery while performing it, warning viewers to look away should they get squeamish. Diethrich made a long cut in the patient’s chest, then used a sternal saw — one of his inventions — to cut through the breastbone. The saw was audible in the telecast.
Diethrich took a vein that had previously been removed from Schuler’s leg and grafted it around the blocked artery. Schuler’s heart had been chilled to stop beating, and he was hooked up to a heart and lung machine. After the procedure, viewers saw the machinery removed and Schuler’s heart start beating again.
Diethrich’s surgical practice faced scrutiny from the Board of Medical Examiners in the late 1980s. One member referred to him as a “mechanic.”
Diethrich told the board that he did leave much of the pre- and post-operative work to others, stepping in for the most crucial portion of the heart surgery. He said that allowed him to perform the 10 to 12 heart surgeries, most of them bypass operations, he did each day.
The board ended up giving Diethrich a letter of reprimand, the lowest discipline available.
Beyond the news pages, Diethrich also made a splash on the society pages, as a fixture at charity balls and dinners around Phoenix. He also became a sports figure. In 1983, he became owner of the Arizona Wranglers of the United States Football League, a short-lived summer league designed to compete with the National Football League.
Diethrich opened the Arizona Heart Hospital in 1998. Both the heart hospital and the institute became part of Abrazo Health Care in 2010. Diethrich retired from the hospital in 2012.
In the “Invisible Impact” documentary, Diethrich described how one day, he had parked his car in his garage but couldn’t control his hand to open the door. By the time he was taken to the emergency room, he was in a “full-blown seizure,” he said in the film. An MRI revealed a tumor.
He woke up after surgery, he said, with the doctor showing him X-rays of where the tumor was and describing the upcoming courses of physical therapy.
“At that moment, it struck me that I will never be that cardiovascular surgeon again that I was,” he said.
Diethrich had worked on a surgical technique that allowed surgeons to see images of a patient’s heart and veins without cutting them open. “The principal technique was to make it simpler and safer,” Diethrich said in the film.
But that technique required radioactive equipment in the operating room. Diethrich, in the film, said he dutifully wore a lead apron, though it caused his muscles to spasm after a time. And, he said, it did not protect his head.
“I guess I felt this radiation cannot hurt me,” he said in the film. “I felt indestructible. Obviously, I didn’t know what I was talking about, did I?”
Diethrich was a media fixture and a flamboyant personality who decorated his offices with original artwork by expressionist painter LeRoy Neiman. But at his core, he was a surgeon motivated by his work. In 1982, the same morning he performed surgery on Goldwater, Diethrich was walking into St. Joseph’s Hospital following his news conference. Arizona Republic columnist Tom Fitzpatrick was with him.
As he entered St. Joseph’s, a woman stopped him and thanked him for saving her husband’s life. Her husband was going home that day. “I’m glad,” he told the woman. “Didn’t I promise you everything would work out fine?”
As he waited for the elevator with the columnist, Diethrich said, with a catch in his voice, “You see why I love my work?”
Diethrich died Feb. 23. He is survived by his wife, Gloria; son, Tad; daughter, Lynne; and eight grandchildren. Information on services was not available. Donations were requested to be sent to the Arizona Heart Foundation.