Remembering a Remarkable Lifesaver

Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, and . . . Raymond Damadian? Why would a relatively unknown but brilliant inventor be lifted above even these gifted inventors at his funeral service in August 2022? Damadian started from scratch. As his son Jevan pointed out, Ford improved on the horseless carriage and Jobs made computers smaller and accessible to a wider audience. On the other hand, the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan and machine were Damadian’s.

For millions of grateful patients, one of Damadian’s MRI scanners exposed a tumor or helped a doctor diagnose an illness, saving their lives and revolutionizing medicine. Perhaps even you or a loved one have benefited from one of his machines.

What drove this exceptionally gifted medical scientist and devout Christian to invent the MRI scanner? His daughter, Keira, stated it this way: “He had the heart of a healer.” It was the combination of a brilliant mind with a Christian heart of compassion to heal people. But this “gentle genius,” as he was dubbed, possessed the fire in his belly to benefit mankind and also to honor his Creator. One tragic event in particular moved him to act.

At age 10, Damadian watched his beloved grandmother endure a long and extremely painful form of cancer. She finally succumbed. Years later, he graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, bent on fighting cancer.

While on the medical school faculty of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, he began his journey to create the MRI. Damadian’s MRI machine could make images of parts of the body—including possible tumors—as they reacted to radio waves and a strong magnetic field. In short, doctors could now clearly visualize organs and tumors and offer a diagnosis, avoiding the risk of exploratory surgery.

As a critical thinker, Damadian was not shy about declaring that molecules-to-man evolution was a bankrupt belief system. In Gifted Mind, his biographer wrote that Damadian considered evolution a “tragic hoax foisted upon mankind,” and lamented that society was increasingly ignoring that we “are creations of a gracious God.”

Damadian was a long-time supporter of creation apologetics organizations, even attending the ribbon cutting of Answers in Genesis’ (AiG) Ark Encounter in 2016. He also participated in the famous 2014 evolution/creation debate between Bill Nye, TV’s “Science Guy,” and Ken Ham, founder of AiG. Nye had publicly proclaimed that teaching creation to children would hold back scientific progress in the US and added that a creationist cannot be a good scientist. The debate covered whether holding a creationist worldview hindered or helped science. Nye’s claim was debunked at the very outset when Ham showed a brief video of the renowned life-saving MRI scientist, who rejected evolution.

Damadian was honored by President Ronald Reagan with the National Medal of Technology in 1988 and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1989. His first scanner, called Indomitable, is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection.

Damadian’s life was not without its obstacles and injustices. Several scientists and medical doctors have publicly pointed out that Damadian did not receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003 because of his creationist beliefs, whereas two others did for their MRI research. Damadian also endured a challenge to the patent he held on the MRI scanner when a huge corporation infringed upon it. After a protracted legal battle, the courts decided in his favor.

In 1971, Damadian published an article in Science magazine on the possibility of creating a magnetic resonance scanner. After applying for a patent for his scanning method in 1972, he was granted the patent in 1974 and conducted the first MRI study of a human body in 1977.

History is clear about the true father of MRI. Today, Dr. Damadian is enjoying his reward—an eternal, noble one—while we continue benefitting from his lifesaving invention here on earth.