Domino effect: 25+ years fighting the pig flu

Domino effect: 25+ years fighting the pig flu
Ellen Leahy 05/15/09

Bruce Murray let his medical journey define him in the most positive of ways. Here he sits with a portrait of himself during his first heart surgery in a garden he crafted and tends in his backyard on Kensington Place. Beyond love and science perhaps laughter has been Murray’s best medicine. Photo by Ellen Leahy., Magic by Bruce Murray. As the H1-N1 hype simmers down, one Syracuse man carries the scars of the first swine flu outbreak in the 1970s. But instead of the bug, he took ill from the vaccine. That one shot turned him into a bit of a medical marvel and like a gladiator, he has returned to the operating room, again and again, only to stand victorious, but beat up for sure.

You may remember Bruce Murray as Central New York’s first successful heart transplant patient. After his new heart, the early anti-rejection drugs eventually destroyed Bruce’s kidneys, so he had a kidney transplant. Another side effect ate away at his hips, so that he’s had both replaced. And as if this wasn’t enough, he also had Legionnaire’s disease from one hospital stay that caused him to have a stroke, while he was originally waiting for his heart. He was actually taken off the transplant list because of the stroke, but later recovered enough to again be a candidate. That was 25 years ago. The longest living heart transplant is now 27 years.

Bruce said it is impossible to express in words the feelings he has for those that gifted him with their organs. A 17-year- old boy’s heart from St. Louis, MO. and a 40 year old woman’s kidney from the New York City area. Their actions to be organ donors literally gave him life. It’s a feeling so intense — like trying to explain love.
With his new heart Bruce found his purpose. That was to educate people on the very gift of life he had received.

For many years he has been a spokesperson for organ donor registration and also for the American Heart Association.

Now, as Bruce approaches his 60th birthday this June, this year also marks 25 years with his new heart, 13 year with his new kidney, and nine years with the new hips, so his friends and family are gathering at Riley’s on Park Street for an event called “The Bionic Bash.”

Many years ago Terry Riley, the proprietor of Riley’s, transformed a couple of apartments above his pub style restaurant into a private party area that might remind one of a glamorous gangster’s apartment from an Edward G. Robinson movie — only in color. The idea for the bash came from a tour Bruce was giving his sister, Sandee (in town from New Hampshire), of the upstairs at Riley’s on Park Street.

“This is where I’d like to have my wake,” he said.

Sandee essentially said, why wait ‘til you’re dead, let’s celebrate your life now. So a guy who has been given more death sentences than most, agreed. Mainly because he feels it is an opportunity to thank all the people who have helped him along the way, his sisters Sandee and Ann and their families— and as he said there are many more unsung heroes in his life. Besides the people who donated their organs, so he could live, people along the way had fund raisers, prayed for him, helped with logistics, gave him work, aided in his rehabilitation, made food, told his story, took him to SU sporting events and even just simply amused him.

Bruce, whose blood runs Orange, is Syracuse through and through from Ed Smith to Levy, to Nottingham. He is trying to locate friends from his many paths along the way to today. You know who you are, so give him a call 474-6302.

That means you too Carrie Lazarus and Karen Franklin who as young reporters followed his story to Manhattan and back.

Bruce’s mom and dad
In the circle of his life, his parents Bill and Gladys met in the Philippines during World War II. She was an army nurse and he, an air force pilot, also her patient. They came home to Syracuse where Bill built the home on Kensington Place where Bruce now lives. As an operating room nurse at Crouse Hospital, Gladys had more skills than most moms to aid with her son’s illnesses and post-op care. Bruce was able to return the favor and take care of her later in life, so that she could remain in her home until the end. That was four years ago.

What you may not know is that his father, William “Bill” Murray, died when Bruce was just 10 years old from complications awaiting a kidney transplant. It was in the early days of dialysis.

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