City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Under the microscope, Professor Earl Owen

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non fiction

Under the microscope

Professor Earl Owen

Under the Microscope is the story of an extraordinary man, his many life-changing inventions, and his exceptional life and special friendships. Born into a family of doctors on the paternal and maternal sides - with a birth defect that no one knew how to deal with, he was given a whopping dose of radiation, before anyone even knew what radiation treatment could do to a body, let alone a baby three days old. Earl Owen's medical parents, aunts and uncles failed to notice that as he grew he walked with a limp and had a very damaged leg. At eleven he endured a year of painful surgeries in an attempt to remedy his damaged bones. Whilst lying in bed in a dungeon room in a hospital over that year he decided he would grow up to be the best surgeon ever, one who would deal delicately and carefully with birth defects and would communicate with patients. Towards the end of that year he also started having daily piano lessons in that hospital and at age 20 had to decide whether to pursue a career as a concert pianist or a surgeon. To say this man is a high achiever barely touches on his gifts and talents. He invented microsurgery (and a number of the lenses that are used in microscopes too), did the first finger replacements on a child (and got kicked out of the hospital for that even though it was successful), headed up the team that completed the first successful hand transplant (that happened to be on a criminal from WA, he had lost his arm in jail), trained the team that completed the first double-hand transplant. He has replaced penises, reversed vasectomies and fallopian tube ligatures. Many people have been able to conceive children because of his revolutionary work. And, he heads up a design company. Designing dentist chairs and the seating in three of the venues at the Sydney Opera House

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