Dr. Joseph Murray changed medicine in what I believe is the biggest way possible. He performed the world's first successful direct transplant surgery on a human, and then found ways to make the procedure easier and less deadly. At the time, transplants were only attempted on animals and most transplants failed because of the organ being rejected from its new host body. Dr. Joseph Murray took it to humans and was successful because he added an immunosuppressant, a medication that suppresses the immune system, which allowed the organ to be accepted. This was a breakthrough in science and medicine because it gave options to many people whose lives would have ended short due to disease. Now in the United States, we do over 30,000 transplants a year. How did he make such a great breakthrough? In the following paragraphs I will elaborate on Dr. Murray’s numerous accomplishments in the medical field and continued successions . …show more content…
He grew up and went to high school in Milford. In high school he was stongin science and he liked to play baseball. After he got his diploma, he went to college and then to Harvard medical school. A year in his surgical internship at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, he was drafted into the Army for the medical corps.
WWII was in full force and the American soldiers needed doctors and surgeons so he wasn't against being deployed. Dr. Murray was now getting trained on reconstructive surgery, also known as plastic surgery, on the eyes and hands. His attending surgeon, the surgeon in charge, was Dr. J. Barrett Brown and Dr. Bradford Cannon. These three doctors were studying the rejection of skin grafts. The grafts would get rejected because of the immune system. The war was ending so he was able to go back to his surgical