Louis Feldman

Louis W. Feldman, 88, former head of the Baylor College of Medicine machine shop who worked with Houston’s heart surgeons to fashion devices that have saved or improved thousands of lives, died Friday morning of complications related to diabetes and congestive heart failure.

Lou was born April 25, 1924 in New York, the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, and grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. After attending Brooklyn College for two years, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served during World War II.

Devoted to progressive politics throughout his life, he met Lore Murr at a community organizing event in 1948, and they were married May 1 of that year. In the 1950s, they moved with their two young daughters to Houston, where their son was born. Lou worked in the Baylor machine shop from 1959 until retiring in 1992. He attended night classes at the University of Houston, earning a physics degree in 1971. Working with physicians including Drs. Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, George Noon, Stanley Crawford and David Yawn, Lou helped develop numerous medical instruments and devices and held several patents.

He considered the most significant of these to be the blood salvage machine, which cleans and circulates a patient’s own blood during surgery, reducing the need for transfusions.

After retirement, Lou pursued his passion for painting, creating colorful works that were displayed in several local exhibitions and grace the walls of his home and those of his children and grandchildren.

Besides Lore, his wife of 64 years, Lou leaves daughter Naomi Feldman, her husband, Ron Deike, and their son Ben Deike; daughter Claudia Feldman, her husband, Don Mason, their son Sam Mason and daughter Amanda Mason; and son David Feldman, his wife, Renée Feldman, and their daughters Allie and Gabbi Feldman.

A celebration of Lou’s life is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at the University of Houston’s A.D. Bruce Chapel, 3801 Cullen Blvd.