By Francesca Donlan
The Desert Sun

He’s been called "The Father of Critical Care Medicine." You could also call Dr. Max Harry Weil the king of hearts.

Weil, 73, has been called one of the world’s leading physicians, medical educators and medical scientists. He is also president of Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine in Palm Springs, one of the noted research institutes on CPR in the world.

Weil and his colleague, Dr. Herbert S. Shubin, are credited with pioneering critical care medicine at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in 1958 and watching it spread throughout the country.

"We were frustrated with human beings found dead in the bed in the morning or slipping out of our hands when we were there. We didn’t know what to do," Weil said in his Palm Springs office. "Critical care is about monitoring and measuring the beep, beep, beep and the tubes that go into the body intended to measure what’s going on."

Weil’s hands move quickly while he speaks. He picks up a plastic heart model and plucks pieces off so he can make his points as clearly as possible. Explaining the workings of the heart is as easy for Weil as breathing. He has been studying it for more than five decades.

Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine describes itself as an "international center for research, study and information in the medical, technical, ethical and health economics fields as they pertain to immediate, life-saving medical care."

In a nutshell -- it tries to save lives.

He has trained more than 300 doctors in critical care medicine "and peppered them all over the world."

Born in Switzerland in 1927, Weil became a United States citizen in 1944. He is married with two daughters -- a lawyer and a surgeon. His family also includes a miniature poodle.

He believes in his responsibility to treat but also to prevent heart disease. He exercises almost every day and proudly asserts that he doesn’t "act like an old man."

Currently about 300,000 Americans die every year of cardiac arrest, which happens when the heart stops beating. CPR can resuscitate many people but only a small number survive to lead full lives, Weil said. More than 80 percent die even though they have been initially resuscitated.

"We’re working on that," he said.

In 1975, Shubin, a close friend, collapsed and died of cardiac arrest while hiking in the Sierras.

"That sparked a very serious interest in CPR for me," Weil said.

The failing heart became his primary passion.

Sidney Galanty, media consultant and television producer/director, was grateful for that passion 20 years ago. At 47, the two-pack-a-day smoker and avid junk food eater suffered a heart attack. Because of Weil’s practices, which included monitoring patients at the hospital in the 1970s, he survived.

"I was one of the first people to be hooked up on computers monitoring my heart rate and they set up a display area so nurses could watch and monitor your health," said Galanty. "I benefited by that. It was so unheard of that Dr. Weil had to go on the road and sell his ideas to hospitals and universities."

Galanty said he is just one of thousands of people whose life has been extended because of Weil.

Galanty, who served as a trustee at Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine, said he spoke to many doctors who began doing research only to discover that Weil already did that years ago.

"He’s a very modest man," he said. "He’s not interested in publicity. He’s buried in the work. He’s only interested in the work."

Weil also made it his mission to teach CPR in the community. The center has trained more than 2,000 students and 600 adults in the Coachella Valley in the past year.

Last February, a 14-year-old Palm Springs High School cheerleader saved her sister’s life after she fell unconscious on their dining room floor. Corinne Caranci, 17, is alive because her sister, Tiffany Caranci, practiced cardiopulmonary resuscitation that she learned as a result of Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine’s community outreach program.

Weil has also moved automated defibrillators into the community -- getting life saving equipment into country clubs, gated communities and churches. He was also involved in getting them on airlines.

Dr. Earl Mason, board of trustees, said Weil has indirectly saved many lives with his work on CPR.

"He really wants to do something to help other people," Mason said. "He’s got an old-fashioned doctor’s motive."

In one of life’s strange ironies, Weil watched as a 55-year-old man collapsed of a heart attack while playing tennis at the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage. Despite manual CPR, Weil could not save his life. The defibrillator that he carried with him was in his car and wasn’t retrieved quickly enough.

"It’s just another major tragedy," Weil said. "We see that all the time. No week goes by without at least two people falling dead on a golf course or a tennis court in the valley."

It’s experiences like those that keep Weil working.

His accomplishments are staggering, as his 25-page resume can attest. He is the author or co-author of more than 1,000 publications. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World and five other Who’s Who publications. He’s also listed in Two Thousand Notable Americans. And that is only a handful of the 17 books that contain his biography.

He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan and his medical degree at the State University of New York. His residency was at the University of Minnesota Hospitals, Heart Hospital, and Veterans Administration Hospital, Minneapolis.

Recently he received the American Heart Association’s lifetime award for his contributions to the field of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care.

His commitment to life-saving medical care is well known not only in the United States but also around the world. Hundreds of research fellows from all over the world are trained in critical care medicine and CPR research at the Palm Springs institute.

Weil came to the Coachella Valley in 1991 from the University of Health Sciences in Chicago. The institute maintains an affiliation with University of Health Services along with the University of Southern California School of Medicine and the Desert Regional Medical Center.

His most recent research helped predict the success or failure of electrical shocks delivered by defibrillators during CPR. This technique reduces the chance of damaging the heart with excessive shock.

Weil’s next project has more to do with the psychological than the scientific. He has applied for a grant to enhance the relationship with the doctor, patient and family.

"We would provide payment for 15 minutes of actual eyeball-to-eyeball, hand-on-hand encounter, for the sole purpose of explaining what is happening to the patient," he said.

"We think if we communicate better we will gain greater patient satisfaction and save large expenditures," Weil said.

The hope is that it will cause a national change in policy between the relationship between doctors and patients.

Weil has no intention of slowing down.

"I have the alternative to retire but I have no intention," he said. He wants the community to learn CPR and become competent in the use of automatic defibrillators and other potent tools.

"We’re working on making the equipment better and better," he said. "The majority of deaths are due to coronary disease and we want to change that."