[Koop] I think what triggered my interest in medicine when I was a kid of five was the
unbelievable awe and respect in which our family doctor was held. I didn't even know in those days
what respect was but whatever he had I wanted. [Narrator] Before he became C. Everett Koop,
world-renowned pediatric surgeon and later the most powerful and outspoken Surgeon General the
United States had ever seen, he was simply Charles Everett Koop, a young man growing up in Brooklyn
New York who was fascinated with the notion that doctors could heal sick people. Koop was born
October 14 1916 and his early years were spent immersed in family. Both sets of grandparents,
aunts, uncles, and cousins all lived in the same neighborhood and were the primary force in
molding his character and values. [Koop] Just by emulating what they did and espousing their causes
and being interested in the same things they were I became, I thought, a fairly well-rounded person
with a great many interests, most of which i've never lost. [Narrator] By 14, young Charles was
sneaking into the viewing gallery in the operating theaters at Columbia University.
At home, he set up an operating room in the basement and operated on rats, rabbits,
and stray cats that his mother had anesthetized. [Koop] We had that in the basement of my house and
we used to anesthetize the cat by putting him in a clean garbage pail with a little bit of
cotton soaked in ether and then as soon as he was asleep my mother and I would strap him down on a
little operating table my grandfather had made for me and we proceeded from there. [Narrator]
Three decades later Koop's first innovation, as a pediatric surgeon, was to develop a
device that prevented anesthesia overdoses in children but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
In 1933, Koop left home to play football and major in zoology at Dartmouth College. During
his four years at Dartmouth, Koop acquired the nickname Chick and he met Betty Flanagan,
the young woman who had become his wife. [Koop] What I really did was to steal another guy's girl
and inasmuch as I knew he had two I didn't feel very bad about that.
[Narrator]
Upon med school graduation, Koop accepted a year-long internship
at the Pennsylvania hospital in Philadelphia and the City of Brotherly Love would be his home
for the next 40 years. You see following his residency in 1945, Chick Koop's mentor at Penn
changed the course of his medical destiny. [Koop] He was a very brusque, abrupt kind of gentleman
he said, "Chick, what do you plan to do with your life?" And I outlined it a little bit and he said,
"How would you like to be surgeon in chief of the children's hospital instead?"
I said, "It's my second choice and that's how it happened. [Narrator] Dr. Koop pioneered
innovative techniques and showed that many once terminal conditions in infants were correctable.
To facilitate such operations on newborns with life-threatening birth defects,
Koop established the nation's first neonatal surgical intensive care unit in 1956. [Koop] To
be a youngster in an adult hospital and try to compete with adult demands for attention
just didn't work for kids and I think I was
partly responsible for changing that and making pediatric surgery a really reputable specialty.
[Narration] The supreme court ruling that legalized abortion in 1973
galvanized a spiritual awakening in Koop that began in 1948 and strengthened through the
years. [Narrator] I don't think you could have lived my life and not been against abortion.
So, in 1981, when newly elected President Ronald Reagan was looking for a nominee to become U.S
Surgeon General, he settled on Dr. Koop. [Koop] And all the trouble I had with confirmation,
which took nine long months here, was only because i was anti-abortion. [Narrator] Driven by the
professional principles and religious beliefs that had guided him throughout his career,
Dr. Koop became an outspoken champion of preventive medicine and a healthy
lifestyle. He warned tirelessly about the health hazards of smoking for both active and passive
smokers. [Koop] There were things to do like smoking, drunk driving, problems such as that,
organ transplantation, things that that fit very well with my old life and my new
life. [Narrator] Dr. Koop campaigned vigorously for the rights of persons with disabilities
and for children with life-threatening birth defects and other impairments.
And he helped the nation face the fearsome onslaught of AIDS,
educating the public on prevention and protection. [Koop] Once I was confirmed I enjoyed every single
minute of that job. The thing I got the biggest kick out of, that took almost no effort at all,
was getting smoking off airlines. That I think was a tremendous achievement. [Narrator] As Surgeon
General, Koop was a frequent target of political cartoonists and that probably contributed to his
popularity with the American public. [Koop] The political cartoonist is usually about three days
ahead of the editorial writer, so these are people that are very perceptive, they know what's hot,
and to have a cartoonist think that something I did in public health was
good enough to present, even if it's satirical, it was kind of a reward.
[Narrator]
Koop resigned his post in 1989 but he has continued to speak widely on health care reform
as well as promoting a healthy lifestyle. And Dr. Koop has reached out to a younger audience
through television, even appearing with dim-witted comedy rapper Ali G,
to discuss, among other things, death. [Koop] I can guarantee that 100 you will die. [Ali G]
Right, he was being a bit of a pessimist there. [Koop] No,
I'm being an absolute realist. [Ali G] Yeah, I'd like to get a second opinion on that. [Narrator]
Dr. Koop is also a strong proponent of using the internet for disseminating health information
so his inclusion in the Profiles in Science is especially gratifying. [Koop] Most of the things
that i said on television, the sound bites I did, the documentaries I did, the lectures I gave,
a huge archive, the only archive I know of on AIDS and how it developed medically,
is now going to be available on the internet. [Narrator] Dr. Koop and his wife live in Hanover
New Hampshire, where he is senior scholar at the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth College.