Prior to his retirement from medical practice in 1991, Lester R. Sauvage, MD was a world-renown cardiovascular surgeon and researcher. His innovative work in the early 1960s paved the way for successful cardiac bypass graft surgery (CABG); the most frequently performed life-extending heart operation in the world.
During his prolific career, as the specialty of cardiovascular surgery emerged and matured, his research added a tremendous amount of new knowledge about surgical procedures and techniques, including using internal mammary arteries to revascularize the entire heart. He was the go-to authority for artificial veins and arteries. His medical device inventions included artificial heart values, and synthetic veins and arteries. His surgical schedule was equally intense as his research. He performed more than 10,000 surgeries in his career and had a personal work ethic that exhausted the surgeons who came to learn from him in his competitive fellowship program.
At a critical juncture in his life Dr. Sauvage chose medicine over the priesthood but his deeply-held faith has permeated everything he has ever done. As his reputation for “whole person care” spread, he earned the designation as the “Mother Teresa of heart surgery” for the compassionate way he attended every patient regardless of their beliefs or ability to pay. It wasn’t unusual to see him post-surgery feeding his patients or washing their hair. His mission was to love everyone with the same Divine love he experienced.
In retirement, Dr. Sauvage turned his attention to spreading his passion for healing through writing and speaking. He is the author of 253 professional papers and one medical book (Prosthetic Replacement of the Aortic Valve, 1972) plus four books for the general public: The Open Heart (1996, forewords by Mother Teresa and C. Everett Koop, MD); You Can Beat Heart Disease (1998, endorsed by forty-seven medical authorities); The Better Life Diet (2000); and now Opening Hearts: A Cardiovascular Surgeon Reflects on Faith, Healing, Love & the Meaning of Life.
He died peacefully in his sleep on June 5, 2015 just days after publishing his final book, Opening Hearts. With his work done and missing his wife who preceded him in death by four months, he entered eternal life as gently as he cared for his family and all his patients and their families.