March 15, 2008
Stephen Colvin, 64, Inventive Heart Surgeon, Is Dead
By DENNIS HEVESI
Dr. Stephen B. Colvin, a heart surgeon who promoted the now widespread use of a pioneering procedure for repairing a leaky heart valve and who also performed heart surgery on children all over the world, died last Saturday in Manhattan. He was 64.
The cause was system failure after a recent diagnosis of multiple myeloma, his brother, Jody, said. Dr. Colvin died at the New York University Medical Center, where he had been chairman of the department of cardiothoracic surgery until last year.
The procedure promoted by Dr. Colvin, reconstruction rather than replacement of the mitral valve, was first performed in France in the 1980s by Dr. Alain F. Carpentier. Dr. Colvin went to France to learn the technique. With its significant increase in patient survival, the technique has become standard.
Dr. Colvin, who performed nearly 10,000 operations during his 30-year career at the N.Y.U. Medical Center, was also one of the first to use sternal-sparing cardiac surgery, a less invasive technique of repairing a valve by entry between the ribs rather than through the breastbone. Dr. Colvin and his colleague Dr. Aubrey Galloway, who is now chairman of N.Y.U.?s cardiothoracic surgery department, invented the Colvin-Galloway Future Band, one of several types of prosthetic ring used to reshape a damaged mitral valve.
Stephen Benjamin Colvin was born on May 21, 1943, and grew up in Forest Hills, Queens. He graduated from N.Y.U. in 1964 and earned his medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
Dr. Colvin?s first wife, the former Elinor Greneman, died in 2001. In addition to his brother, of Manhattan, he is survived by his wife, the former Helane Brachfeld; a son, Sean, and a daughter, Mikaela; two daughters from his first marriage, Laurel Tanier of Philadelphia and Dr. Heather Kaufman of Manhattan; and three grandchildren.
For many years, working through nonprofit organizations, Dr. Colvin performed heart surgery on children around the world. He was a co-founder, in 2001, of Project Kids Worldwide, which so far has provided heart surgery for more than 50 children from China, Africa, India, South America and the Middle East.
