The Work of Human Hands

by G. Wayne Miller

A report on a day in the life of trailblazing surgeon Dr. Hardy Hendren provides an unprecedented tour through the halls of Children's Hospital in Boston--the nation's premier pediatric medical center. 20,000 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction

359 pages, Hardcover

First published February 16, 1993

About the author

http://www.gwaynemiller.com/bio.htm

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look into the world of renowned pediatric surgeon W. Hardy Hendren III, who I was surprisingly not familiar with prior to reading the book. Working primarily at Boston Children's Hospital since the 1950s, Hendren revolutionized treatment of children with severe birth defects in their gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems by surgically building functional bladders, rectums, anuses, and vaginas at a time when other surgeons could simply provide an outlet for waste via the children's abdomens that required living with a bag to collect that waste. Saved their lives, for sure, but Hendren wanted to go farther, especially after seeing a childhood friend die of a similar condition that was surgically repaired but not corrected sufficiently to give the boy a normal, long life.
Miller alternates between providing a biography of Hendren and telling the story of Lucy Moore. Moore was a baby born in 1989 with a cloaca, basically one hole between her legs that served the purpose of a urethra, vagina, and anus, but poorly at best, as her large intestine was connected to her bladder through a narrow passageway that could not accommodate elimination of solid waste sufficiently, and no one could be sure there actually were female reproductive organs at the other end of the cloaca. Cloaca repair/revision was Hendren's specialty, one of 3 operations he made it his personal mission to excel at, as all 3 surgeries were for very rare conditions (Hendren had only seen ~120 cloaca patients before Moore), required long, difficult days in the operating room that a lesser surgeon would opt to divide into more, smaller operations, and had little margin for error. It was easy to see why Hendren gets the nickname 'Hardly Human', as his stamina is legendary despite being of an age at the time of Moore's operation when his peers are starting to hang up their scalpels and wind down their careers with the satisfaction of a job well done, having taught the next generation to take over the complex cases that come in.
Certainly now, Hendren would be in his 80s and I don't imagine he is still doing the marathon surgeries, but from what I can tell from Google, he remains active in the foundations he started to ensure that future Lucy Moores are given the same opportunity to have a fully functional and normal appearing pelvic anatomy. The book was written not long after Moore's surgery, and her name is a pseudonym, so it is impossible to know the long-term outcome of Hendren's surgery, though Miller does provide info on some of Hendren's earliest cases, who have gone on to lead normal lives and even bear children, none of which would have been possible had they seen a less daring surgeon, willing to take the inherent risks of a lengthy surgery in order to aim for the best possible result.
Overall, an excellent read, and my only guess as to why Hendren escaped my radar so long is that his work was so specialized that you wouldn't necessarily need to know about him until you truly needed to know about him, and word of mouth, in the era before the internet and Google, would ensure his name would reach the ears of those who did.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several family members benefitted from the skilled hands and brilliant mind of this talented surgeon (Ureter implantation). So maybe I am biased, but it was interesting to read Dr Hardy Hendron’s story.

[Keri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a dated book, the author is slavishly in awe of this surgeon, who is not a particularly interesting person. The parts about surgery and different birth defects is fascinating, but the writing is truly awful. It’s also hard to read about some of the procedures they used to do 30 and 40 years ago, like turning babies born with XY chromosomes into “girls” if they were born with malformed genitals. We know now this is a horrible thing to do and causes all sorts of psychological problems. In total, book is worth a skim, not a read.

[Judith Paterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating Storey. Remarkable Man.

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew Dr. Hendron, he saved my life more than once. It was a pleasure to read a book about him and the lives he changed.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up for free at an ALA booth and could hardly put it down. It's about a surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital. He pioneered surgery for people with cloaca. Look it up in Wikipedia is my best advice. His brilliant work on this problem has not only saved lives, but made it possible for improved quality of life for those with this problem.

And yet, this surgeon is not perfect. The author captures his personality, his quirks, his brilliance, but doesn't make him out to be a saint.

[Bruno Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly written for the layman and medical professionals as well, since it deals with explanation of serious congenital defects all in between description of a great surgeon. A must read for parents with children that have congenital malformations, medical/nursing students and practitioners as well. You will be able to understand the way parents deal with this problems and the way a brilliant, relentless and interesting Pediatric surgeon (teacher and mentor to a breed of today's leading Pediatric surgeons in the U.S.).

Read it.

[Donna]

I am not sure if this would be interesting to a non-medical person.