Joseph Murray: Pioneering Plastic Surgeon and Father of the First Organ Transplant

Dr. Joseph Murray was a plastic surgeon who is best known for performing the first successful human organ transplant. After graduating from Harvard Medical School and completing a surgical internship at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Murray enlisted in the US Army Medical Corp and spent 5 years at Valley Forge General Hospital treating World War II soldiers injured in combat. He treated hundreds of burn victims with skin grafts and took an interest in the variable process of graft rejection based on both the patient’s relation to the graft donor and the patient’s level of immunocompetency. His work at Valley Forge set the stage for his research investigating the feasibility of kidney transplantation and immunosuppression. He went on to perform the first successful kidney transplant between identical twins in 1954, between fraternal twins in 1959, and between an unrelated donor and recipient in 1962. For his efforts, he was awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Performing Political Persuasion in the United States in the Early Years of the Republic

Theater productions were born out of a paradox in the United States of the Revolutionary War and shortly afterwards. While the nation’s dominant ideology was anti-theatrical, theater often served a nationalist agenda, co-defining the new American nation and its nascent identities – such were, for example, productions of Joseph Addison’s Cato at Valley Forge in 1778 and William Dunlap’s André at the New Park in New York in 1798. These theater events empowered the audience to publicly perform their national identity as Americans and exercise their republican fervor. Similarly, a production of Bunker-Hill by J. D. Burk at the Haymarket in Boston in 1797 was crucial in helping define the social and political identities of its audiences, who were motivated to attend the performances as an expression of their partisan preferences. This article shows that literary, theatrical and social practices served to constitute performatively the early American national identity.

We Walk

This chapter focuses on the author's experience with her twenty-one-year-old son, Jonah, who has severe autism as they walk around Atlantic City. It mentions home in Philadelphia, where they hike through Valley Forge National Park and Fairmount Park, the largest city park in the world. It also refers to their walk around their neighbors' field or up and down their driveway, which is harder than it sounds since it's a quarter of a mile up a steep hill. The chapter talks about the laps they did around the top deck of a cruise ship to the Bahamas but had to abort once they discovered how determined Jonah was to launch himself overboard the way he likes to jump off the little motorboat. It recounts their walk on the beach at Key Largo and down abandoned railroad tracks by the Susquehanna River in Maryland.

733 From the Trenches of War to the Bedside of Civilians: Joseph E. Murray MD FACS and the Contributions of Military Surgeons to Advances in Burn Care

Introduction Significant advances in medical and surgical care have often originated from our experience caring for those wounded on the battlefield. The year of the ABA’s 52nd annual meeting marks the 30th anniversary of the selection of Joseph E. Murray MD FACS as recipient of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Methods In his autobiography Surgery of the Soul: Reflections on a Curious Career, Dr. Murray credits a 22 year old US Army aviator named Charles Woods with guiding him into an emerging field of transplantation surgery. On December 23, 1944, Woods sustained burns over 70% of his body in an accident during takeoff while teaching another pilot at his Army Air Corps base in India. Woods survived and eventually was transferred back to the US where came under of the care of a young 25 year old surgeon named Joseph Murray. Results Like many young surgeons of his era, Dr. Murray joined the military service during WWII. Dr. Murray had just completed his internship at Peter Bent Brigham in Boston in September 1944 when he was assigned to Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, PA. Valley Forge was one of eight regional US Army hospitals created during WWII dedicated to plastic surgery and burn care. It was during his care for soldiers wounded in battle at this time in his early formative years that Dr. Murray developed his curiosity regarding tissue transplantation. Following military service, he completed his surgical training in Boston and New York City, and returned to the Brigham in July 1951. His military service caring for burn victims instilled a passion and curiosity regarding transplantation of human tissue. This culminated in his leading a team to perform the first human kidney transplantation on December 23, 1954...exactly 10 years to the day after the airplane crash that injured Charlie Woods. Conclusions Recognizing his dedication and accomplishments in the field of transplantation surgery, the Nobel selection committee awarded Dr. Murray thirty-six years later it’s Prize in Medicine. Applicability of Research to Practice Dr. Murray’s legacy which began during his care of soldiers during WWII offers an inspiration to all those caring for patients who have sustained burn injuries.

Washington’s Soldier

Captain William Croghan entered Valley Forge with ten thousand soldiers in December 1777 and left with Washington the following June as a major in Charles Scott’s brigade. He lived and worked with Lafayette, Steuben, Wayne, Hamilton, Burr, and Knox for six brutal months before emerging to encounter Clinton’s British army on a blistering day near Monmouth Court House, New Jersey. Reassigned to the Southern army in defense of Charleston, Croghan was one of approximately thirty-five hundred Americans who were forced to ground their arms to the tune of TheTurk’sMarchon 12 May 1780, the largest patriot defeat of the American Revolution. Released on parole with Colonel Jonathan Clark in the next spring, Croghan was assigned to Fort Pitt, but raced to take part in the battle of Yorktown, the last major military encounter of the Revolution.