Thank you Dr. Murray

[Reggaedoc]

On behalf of the 500,00 persons who receive transplants all over the world every year, I would like to say RIP to my mentor, teacher, professor, and guide, Dr. Joseph Edward Murray who introduced me to the wonders of surgery at a youg age, and helped in shaping my career as a young medical student. He was a true gentlemen, with patience, and always carried out his duties with such a broad smile. I can still picture him walking the halls of Harvard, and the operating rooms of the Brigham's and Women's Hospital. Despite being the first person on the planet to perform human organ transplant, and being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology, he remained humble and was always available to answer even the simplest to the most intricate questions on surgical art and science that his students, residents, and junior attendings asked. It was a joy to have been in his presence on ward rounds and in weekly conferences, as the knowledge and skill of this giant could hardly be found in standard medical texts.
Ther world has lost a true giant.

[HL]

I Second that ReggaeDoc....

GREAT contribution!!!!!

[Assasin]

Repect. His work is large, thanks for the personal touch. RIP the bigman

[Historian]

Clearly an outstanding man!

On behalf of the 500,00 persons who receive transplants all over the world every year, I would like to say RIP to my mentor, teacher, professor, and guide, Dr. Joseph Edward Murray who introduced me to the wonders of surgery at a youg age, and helped in shaping my career as a young medical student. He was a true gentlemen, with patience, and always carried out his duties with such a broad smile. I can still picture him walking the halls of Harvard, and the operating rooms of the Brigham's and Women's Hospital. Despite being the first person on the planet to perform human organ transplant, and being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology, he remained humble and was always available to answer even the simplest to the most intricate questions on surgical art and science that his students, residents, and junior attendings asked. It was a joy to have been in his presence on ward rounds and in weekly conferences, as the knowledge and skill of this giant could hardly be found in standard medical texts.
Ther world has lost a true giant.

Dr. Joseph Murray dies at 93; Nobel winner performed first kidney transplant

In 1954, Murray successfully transplanted a healthy kidney from a man and implanted it in his identical twin. He was awarded the 1990 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine.

Dr. Joseph Murray and his wife Bobby are shown in the San Francisco hotel where they learned that Dr. Murray had been awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize. (Reuters)


By Thomas H. Maugh II, Special to The Times
November 27, 2012, 4:40 p.m.


Since ancient times, surgeons have dreamed of transplanting healthy organs into patients disabled by disease and injury, but the human body's powerful immune system stymied all such attempts, leading many observers to conclude that the procedure was impossible.

But on Dec. 23, 1954, Dr. Joseph E. Murray of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston removed a healthy kidney from 23-year-old Ronald Herrick and implanted it in his identical twin, Richard, who was dying of severe kidney disease. The successful procedure proved that organ transplants were possible and opened an era in which organ transplants are now routinely performed on tens of thousands of patients each year.

Murray was later the first to transplant kidneys between non-identical siblings and to use organs from cadavers. His feats won him the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, an award he shared with Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who performed the first bone-marrow transplant.

Murray died Monday at the hospital — now known as Brigham and Women's Hospital — where he performed his first transplant, after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke at his home on Thanksgiving Day. He was 93.

Murray received his first exposure to transplants during World War II while treating wounded soldiers at Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania. When patients did not have enough of their own skin for a graft, surgeons would transplant skin from other patients over the wounds. While these grafts would not survive for more than a few days, they would protect the wounds while they healed.

While preparing for surgeries with Col. James Barrett Brown, the chief of plastic surgery, Murray would often discuss the reasons for rejection. Brown thought that a close genetic relationship between the donor and the recipient would slow the rejection and he had, in fact, successfully grafted skin between identical twins in 1937. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that biologists finally recognized that markers on the surface of cells called human leukocyte antigens, or HLAs, controlled the rejection process.

After the war, Murray began working with dogs in an attempt to perfect transplant techniques — despite the scoffing of colleagues and a mentor's recommendation that he abandon the practice as a dead end. His research was considered "a fringe project," he wrote in his 2001 biography, "Surgery of the Soul."

In October 1954, the dying Herrick was referred to him for potential surgery. After much soul-searching and consultation with ethicists and religious leaders, Murray agreed. Although the hospital planned to keep the operation secret initially, news broke after Murray asked local police to check the fingerprints of the two brothers to ensure that they were twins.
Richard, who married one of his nurses at Brigham and had two children, fell victim to a recurrence of his kidney disease eight years later. Ronald survived until age 79.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/s...,6689412.story

[Mosiah]

Dr. Frankenstein's successor?

Thanks for this, Reggaedoc!

[Willi]

Another good one gone too soon?

[MdmeX]

Another good one gone too soon?

Willi --- he was 93; the angels needed a doc too

[Willi]

Not as much as we do down here!

[Karl]

Sorry you lost your mentor.
May his soul RIP!

btw - When did he perform that 1st transplant?

[Karl]

Just saw this!

[Historian]

When he did that....

Sorry you lost your mentor.
May his soul RIP!

btw - When did he perform that 1st transplant?

Dr. Murray did so on December 23, 1954.

"But on Dec. 23, 1954, Dr. Joseph E. Murray of PeterBent Brigham Hospital in Boston removed a healthy kidneyfrom 23-year-old Ronald Herrick and implanted it in his identical twin,Richard, who was dying of severe kidneydisease. The successful procedure proved that organ transplantswere possible and opened an era in which organ transplants are now routinelyperformed on tens of thousands of patients each year.

"Murray was later the first to transplant kidneysbetween non-identical siblings and to use organs from cadavers. His feats wonhim the 1990 NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine, an award he shared with Dr. E.Donnall Thomas, who performed the first bone-marrow transplant."

(Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/la-me...,7385754.story )

[MdmeX]

Well him help nurture Reggaedoc and countless others!

C'mon Reggaedoc step up to the plate - we NEED you, it's your time to shine