The gift of graft Baylor College of Medicine is credited with inventing the Dacron graft, which usually replaces or repairs blood vessels. Houston's Dr. Michael Ellis DeBakey was the first U.S. surgeon to remove an aneurysm in the aorta near the stomach.Here, Dr. DeBakey holds arterial grafts in 1966, fabricated from knitted Dacron tubing which have proven to be, in this gifted surgeon's hands, a lifesaving device for hundreds of his patients. 