Courtesy of the Yale School of Medicine

Dr. John Elefteriades ’72 MED ’76 is one of the most clinically active academic surgeons in the country, having performed over 10,000 heart surgeries. He has also written multiple books — including a fiction thriller novel — and has been named the top aortic specialist in the world and has written hundreds of research papers.

However, Elefteriades’ successful career did not come from a lifelong passion for medicine, nor a special talent in literature.

“I’m a surgeon with an appreciation for literature and maybe just enough talent to get by,” Elefteriades told the News.

Elefteriades grew up in Pennsylvania. At Yale, he studied French, philosophy and psychology as a combined undergraduate major, residing at Saybrook College. 

For Elefteriades, Yale had not been a dream school from a young age — he decided to apply by chance, due to a recruiter coming to his high school.

“A Yale recruiter came to my high school, walked up to my desk, and he said, ‘Young man, you’re going to Yale,’” Elefteriades said. “I’ve never left. I can’t picture not being at Yale, Yale’s in my blood.”

In addition, despite his interest in psychology, Elefteriades was also not initially a premed student. Nor did he come from a family line of doctors pushing him toward a career in surgery.

His parents are Greek immigrants, with a mechanical engineer father and a mother who excelled in high school but was not able to attend college as a woman.

“To be honest with you, the MCAT was the first test offered [at college],” Elefteriades said. “I was going to go to law school, but it was the first one offered, and I did well enough that I knew I could get a position, so I stopped taking tests. That’s what determined my becoming a doctor.”

So, Elefteriades came to Yale and became a surgeon by chance at the hands of the Yale recruitment team and the admission test scheduling team. Both Yale and his career happened seemingly by fate.

After his admission into the School of Medicine, Elefteriades remained where he was — and he is still based at Yale today — staying on to work as a heart surgeon.

Over these long years at Yale, colleagues have spoken highly of Elefteriades. Both Dr. Roland Assi, a cardiac and aortic surgeon at the Aortic Institute, and Dr. Mohammad Zafar, associate research scientist and research director of the Aortic Institute, described Elefteriades as a “gentleman.”

Zafar described Elefteriades as “the quintessential consummate gentleman.”

“He is the kindest, most compassionate, brilliant, accomplished, wise individual, scientist and physician I know,” Zafar said.

Dr. Lynda Rosenfeld, a cardiologist at Yale, said that it is exciting to see Dr. Elefteriades “in command” of the operating room.

She also described him as an “honorable man” with a sense of humor and a significant interest in cars.

“He complimented my car once and I was bowled over,” Rosenfeld said with a laugh. “It isn’t even one of the fancy ones!”

However, knowing your colleagues well is not the only benefit of staying at one institution for your entire career. Having begun his undergraduate degree in 1968 and remained at Yale ever since, Elefteriades told the News about the benefits of getting to know your patients intimately.

According to Elefteriades, seeing patients for multiple years adds meaning to his work, allowing him to follow the progression of their family and even operate on their children.

“People tell me I don’t like change,” Elefteriades commented with a laugh.

It was long-term work like this that led to his understanding of the genetic component of aortic aneurysms — seeing the same disease passed on through families and operating on his patients’ children led to the 1999 discovery of the genetic progression of this disorder.

This realization of the genetics behind aortic aneurysms changed the medical landscape surrounding their understanding and treatment.

“Working with Dr. Elefteriades is like living the dream within the realm of medicine,” Zafar said. “It is a profound, transformative and life-changing experience.”

His work with heart surgeries and transplants inspired Elefteriades into a new chapter of his life: writing books. Elefteriades told the News that for him, writing is not work, but a fun and satisfying hobby.

His most recent book is called “Transplant,” a fiction thriller exploring the difficulties and ethics of heart transplants. Elefteriades is in the works of his next fiction novel about a surgeon from 3000 years ago.

This entirely unplanned career route reflects Elefteriades as a product of his time.

“The era when I was at Yale was a part of the hippie era, and it was embarrassing to have a career plan,” he said.

While Elefteriades’ career may not have originated from a childhood passion for medicine and writing, his gratitude for the opportunities that Yale has provided him shines through when he speaks.

“I’m fortunate for the life that I’ve been given, by that gentleman who made me come to Yale,” Elefteriades said. “I can’t imagine a more fulfilling life that I could have ever hoped for or planned, and it wasn’t really planned, it just happened from the random way that I took.”

He told the News of the financial aid and the student jobs that the University provided him throughout his education, without which he would not have been able to attend this institution.

“I get emotional just thinking about this,” Elefteriades said. “I feel a great debt of gratitude to Yale University and Yale School of Medicine for providing me with the opportunities that I’ve had, and providing me the education to carry out the wonderful career that I’ve had.”

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