Earl Ronald Owen AO (1934–2014) was an Australian microsurgeon and classical music specialist who led or assisted in many pioneering achievements in the field of microsurgery, including many "world firsts", such as the world's first finger reattachment, vasectomy reversal, fallopian tubal ligation, hand transplant, double-hand transplant and face transplant.
Early life
Born in 1934, Owen's childhood was overshadowed by medical problems, beginning when he underwent radiation therapy to treat a tumour on his leg, which weakened his bones causing them to break when he was aged 11. Enduring multiple failed operations, Owen said he grew to hate his surgeon but the experience inspired him to be a doctor who carefully planned and researched operations before performing surgery.
Medical career
Owen studied at Cranbrook School, Sydney and the University of Sydney where he graduated in 1958. He then commenced work at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne as a trainee surgeon. During the 1960s, Owen worked in London as a senior registrar at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, during which time he also obtained additional medical degrees and began research into microsurgery. In 1965, he visited Germany to work with microscope maker Carl Zeiss AG.
Finger Reattachment
Upon returning to Australia in 1970, Owen commenced working at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, where he made the first of many significant breakthroughs when he successfully reattached a young boy's severed finger. The boy's parents had brought the finger, which had been accidentally chopped off with an axe, to the hospital in a bag. Owen decided to attempt to reattach the finger by sewing the nerve endings together with a needle under a microscope. To do this, Owen disobeyed orders by the head of the hospital who had refused to allow the operation to proceed. After successfully performing Australia's first finger reattachment, Owen was promptly dismissed for insubordination.
Following his dismissal, Owen went onto work with the Prince of Wales Hospital, where he became head of the hospital's microsurgery unit.
Owen continued to develop his microsurgical skills, being the first surgeon to perform vasectomy reversals and complete fallopian tubal ligations.
Hand Transplant
In 1998, Owen and Jean-Michel Dubernard headed up a team to perform what would be the world's first successful hand transplant, which consisted of a groundbreaking 13-hour operation at the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon, where a deceased motorcycle accident victim's hand was transplanted onto the arm of New Zealander Clint Hallam who had lost his hand in a circular saw accident 14 years prior while serving a prison sentence for fraud.
Although the operation was a success and the hand initially moved well, Hallam appealed for the hand to be amputated in 2001 claiming it felt like a dead man's hand with no feeling in it. Doctors who had performed the transplant accused Hallam of failing to complete the full course of anti-rejection drugs and not exercising enough, which Hallam denied. Owen described the amputation as "inevitable" due to Hallam's failure to keeping up the required physiotherapy and accused Hallam of failing to follow the plan he had agreed to prior to the transplant.
Owen had previously been critical of Hallam's behaviour and attitude following the transplant. When an arrest warrant was issued for Hallam in May 2000 in connection to a fuel card scam, Owen inferred in a radio interview that he was beginning to regret his choice of patient for such a pioneering operation, claiming not to know of Hallam's criminal history and accusing Hallam of being only interested in making media appearances for financial gain.
Double Hand Transplant
In 2000, Owen and Dubernard again led a team to perform what would be the world's first successful double hand transplant, which consisted of a 17-hour operation at the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon, where a donor's hands and part of their forearms were transplanted onto the arms of a French man. The man had previously had both arms amputated below the elbows following an accident involving an amateur rocket which had exploded causing severe injuries.