Howard Dully (born November 30, 1948) is an American memoirist who is one of the youngest survivors of the transorbital lobotomy, a procedure performed on him when he was 12 years old.
"[1] In 1960, at 12 years of age, Dully was submitted by his father and stepmother for a trans-orbital lobotomy, performed by Freeman for $200 (equivalent to $2,060 in 2023).
[2] During the procedure, a long, sharp instrument called an orbitoclast was inserted through each of Dully's eye sockets 7 centimeters (2.8 in) into his brain.
[3][4] In his 50s, with the assistance of National Public Radio producer David Isay, Dully started to research what had happened to him as a child.
Dully first relayed his story on a National Public Radio broadcast in 2005, prior to co-authoring a memoir published in 2007.
[8] In the United Kingdom, The Observer characterized the book as "a forceful account of his survival" that "sheds light on the man who subjected him to one of the most brutal surgical procedures in medical history".