The full story of human organ transplantation, and of surgery to repair a badly damaged face, is told in Surgery of the Soul, by Joseph E. Murray, MD

About the Book, Surgery of the Soul

This remarkable book is the autobiography of one of the 20th century’s most honored surgeons, Joseph E. Murray, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990. In it, Dr. Murray describes his role in breakthrough research in human organ transplantation and his pioneering advances in surgical techniques to correct deformities of the head and face caused by birth defects or terrible accidents.

This book tells not only the author’s story, but also the stories of many of  his patients.  One such patient is a 22-year-old aviator names Charles Woods.  During wartime runs in the Far East, Woods’ plane caught fire, and in his attempt to escape, he was burned beyond recognition.  His nose, eyelids, and ears were obliterated, and by the time Woods reached the States, he was barely alive. Over the next 2 years, Dr. Murray and the surgical team at a Pennsylvania military hospital performed 24 operations designed to build their brave patient a new face. Charles Woods survived and went on to a highly successful career, and to fly again.

Dr. Murray relates the story of another patient, Richard Herrick, whose kidneys were failing and whose life was saved when his twin brother, Ronald, agreed to donate one of his healthy kidneys and made possible the first successful kidney transplant. Throughout his career, Joseph Murray traveled to other countries to help clinicians deal with patients suffering from craniofacial and other deformities, such as patients in India whose hands had been disfigured by leprosy but who, after surgery, were able to use their hands to work as artisans and thus become self-sufficient. Dr. Murray introduces you to a highly intelligent boy, Ray McMillan, abandoned by his mother because of a birth deformity and placed in an institution for the mentally retarded. At age 21, Ray’s grandmother rescued him from this senseless incarceration.  Dr. Murray, who was able to correct Ray’s facial deformity, encouraged the boy to write what was in his heart.  You will read what this “retarded” boy had to say, and about the joy he found in life. This book reveals the curiosity, tenacity, optimism, and humanity of a remarkable surgeon and scientist as well as the courage of his colleagues in their quest to understand the complexities of organ rejection despite discouraging setbacks. It also reflects the gratitude of the patients whose suffering Joseph Murray sought to relieve and to whom he has dedicated his life.  It is a story about overcoming adversity and about healing – one that should fascinate any reader and that should leave no one unmoved. 

About the Author:

Joseph Edward Murray was born on April 1, 1919, in Milford, Massachusetts (a town 30 miles southwest of Boston), the third child and second son in his family.  His father was a lawyer and district court judge, and his mother was a schoolteacher. 

After graduating from high school, Murray attended the small liberal arts college, College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he studied Latin, Greek, philosophy, English, chemistry, physics, and biology.  He received his MD degree from Harvard Medical School in 1943.

In 1944, Murray began his surgical training at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women's Hospital) in Boston.  From 1944-1947 he served as a surgeon at the U.S. Army’s Valley Forge General Hospital outside of Philadelphia.  The hospital became a major plastic surgical center where battle casualties from World War II were treated. It was there that Murray became interested in the biology of tissue and organ transplantation and became adept in skin grafting and plastic surgery. 

After his discharge, Murray returned to Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for additional training.  From 1951 to 1986, he served as chief plastic surgeon at the Brigham.  From 1972 to 1985, he was chief plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston.  He has been the recipient of many honors, including the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990.

Retired from surgery since 1987, Dr. Murray continues to play an active role in lecturing, writing, and consulting while enjoying time with his wife, Bobby, their six children, and their 15 grandchildren.  He and Bobby live in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and spend their summers on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.