William Murphy, Jr. was born in 1923 in Massachusetts. If ever there was a person born into a career, it was Dr. Murphy. His father was a Nobel Prize winner in Medicine and his mother was the first licensed dentist in Massachusetts. He majored in pre-medicine at Harvard and graduated with an MD from the University of Illinois.
Dr. Murphy’s career took him from the patient care side of medicine to one of being a biomedical engineer. If you are old enough to have seen the TV series MASH, you probably remember the medics transfusing blood into a wounded soldier. If you have never seen that TV show, you have probably seen some movie or a TV show where a bag with blood is hung on a pole for transfusion. Dr. Murphy, along with Dr. Carl Walter, invented those blood bags.
The plastic bags replaced bottles, which were breakable. The bags were tear proof and could preserve blood for at least six weeks. They have even been dropped into remote or hazardous areas using drones. The plastic bags were first tested during the Korean War. They were an immediate success.
While in Korea observing the effectiveness of the plastic blood bags, Dr. Murphy became concerned by what he saw. He saw needles being reused. He also saw surgical tools lacking proper sterilization. This led to another medical innovation, single-use surgical trays which came sterilized and were discarded after use to avoid infection transmissions.
Dr. Murphy’s medical innovations kept coming. He developed one of the first pacemakers for controlling erratic heart rhythms. He also contributed to the development of artificial kidneys.
He continued his innovative work, and from 1952 to 1980, he had earned 17 patents. He passed away at age 100 in 1923. He was still innovating until his death and developed a growing interest in the use of stem cells in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and heart disease.
Few people may know of Dr. Murphy today, but his advances in medical devices have led to countless lives saved and lives improved. While he never won a Nobel Prize like his father, it could be argued that his efforts led to an even greater impact.
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“That’s a whole new world of regenerative therapy that’s going to be critical to our future.”–Dr. William Murphy, Jr. speaking of the promise of stem cells