Gordon Murray

Murray, Gordon

Gordon Murray, surgeon (b at Stratford, Ont 29 May 1894; d at Toronto 7 Jan 1976). Murray's medical training was interrupted in 1917 when he became an artillery man and went overseas to fight at Ypres, the Somme and Vimy Ridge. Reaching the rank of sergeant major, he finished his medical training in 1921 and trained in anatomy and surgery in London. He was registrar at the London Hospital and acquired his FRSC London. In 1928 Murray returned to Toronto, where he eventually joined the staff of the General Hospital and conducted imaginative and stimulating work in experimental surgery. His most notable work was with the anticoagulant drug Heparin: using it in many different exemplary applications, he was one of the first in the world to demonstrate its use in the prevention of thrombosis and embolism and in maintaining patency following arterial suture and vein grafts to arteries. As well, he developed the first "artificial kidney" to be used successfully in North America, and implanted the first successful homograph valve in the descending aorta of a human. The author of over 90 articles and 3 books, he delivered many scientific papers around the world. He was awarded the Gairdner Foundation International Annual Award in 1964 and became a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1967.