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William J. Harris’s fascination with the heart began<br />
in early elementary school when he checked out a book<br />
about heart surgery from the library. Always a tinkerer,<br />
he was a detail person from an early age. “I always<br />
liked doing things with my hands,” he said. “I built<br />
models, and I loved books on how and why things work.<br />
I would break things down to see how they worked,<br />
then put them back together again.”<br />
The Jackson native was born in Dallas and moved<br />
to Jackson when he was four years old and attended<br />
St. Richard’s School through the eighth grade. His<br />
family moved into the Mill Creek subdivision near the<br />
Reservoir in 1975, and Harris graduated high school at<br />
Northwest <strong>Rankin</strong>. He went to college at Mississippi<br />
State University, where he majored in bio-medical<br />
engineering.<br />
“I chose my major because I thought it would be fun.<br />
Only about four or five people from my class went on<br />
to medical school.” Harris went to medical school at the<br />
University of Mississippi, then completed an internship<br />
and residency in general surgery at the University of<br />
Alabama at Birmingham. He then completed a<br />
fellowship and residency in cardiothoracic surgery at<br />
the UAB before returning to Jackson.<br />
“I didn’t have physicians in my family,” said Harris.<br />
“But after wanting to be a priest, I decided around<br />
the ninth grade that I wanted to go to medical school.<br />
I suppose I’ve always felt a calling to help people.”<br />
Harris credits his bio-medical engineering education<br />
with giving him the skills to take a big problem and<br />
break it down into small, fixable, problems. “That’s what<br />
medicine is all about. Medicine is complicated–I like to<br />
make sense of it.” The credit to his real interest in heart<br />
surgery goes to Anthony Petro. “When I was a first<br />
year med student, I got in contact with him, and he<br />
invited me to come up and watch him do surgery. He<br />
taught me detail things; like scrubbing hands before<br />
surgery—there’s a sort of ritual to it. It got to where he<br />
or his nurse would call me when they were doing<br />
different procedures, and if I had time, I’d go scrub in<br />
and observe.”<br />
Today, Harris is chief of cardiovascular surgery at<br />
Baptist Medical Center. While he does all types of heart<br />
surgery, he has a special interest in mitral valve repair,<br />
robotic cardiac surgery, minimally invasive heart valve<br />
surgery, minimally invasive atrial fibrillation ablation,<br />
treatment of varicose veins, venous reflux and spider<br />
veins. “The best thing is to repair mitral valves, not<br />
replace them. That requires both technical skill and<br />
scientific knowledge. It has an artistic sort of bent to<br />
it, which really appeals to me.”<br />
Harris clearly remembers the first time he looked<br />
down on someone’s chest. “A clamp was placed on<br />
the aorta, and the heart and lungs were not moving.<br />
It profoundly impacted me. From then on I was certain<br />
of what I wanted to do.”<br />
He has been at Baptist for 14 years now. “From a<br />
professional side, my analytic personality finds<br />
satisfaction in doing surgery. I get immediate feedback<br />
on what I’ve done. It’s nice to know that what I’m doing<br />
provides someone with immediate help. It’s also<br />
gratifying to take someone who is extremely ill and do<br />
something technically challenging. Organizing a team<br />
to help you do something very difficult to provide a<br />
good quality of life is rewarding. Doing surgery on<br />
people creates a very personal relationship. It takes a<br />
lot of trust for people to give up control to someone<br />
they may not know very well. I spend a lot of time<br />
away from work thinking about my patients.”<br />
In his spare time, Harris enjoys spending time with<br />
his family. He is married to wife, Cindy, and together<br />
they have three children. “I also enjoy riding my bike<br />
when I can, and playing guitar.” Harris has been playing<br />
guitar since he was 13, and now plays for the show choir<br />
at Jackson Prep, a gig he’s had for about ten years. n<br />
<strong>Hometown</strong> <strong>Rankin</strong> • 53