In December 1960, a 12-year-old boy named Howard Dully became one of the youngest patients ever

In December 1960, a 12-year-old boy named Howard Dully became one of the youngest patients ever to receive a transorbital lobotomy — a procedure now remembered as one of the darkest chapters in medical history.

His stepmother insisted that Howard was “difficult” and possibly schizophrenic. Most teachers and doctors disagreed. But one man—Dr. Walter Freeman, the self-proclaimed “father of the lobotomy”—was willing to proceed. With his father’s consent, the boy’s fate was sealed.

On December 16, Howard was sedated using electroshock. Freeman then inserted an orbitoclast—a sharp metal instrument resembling an ice pick—through each eye socket, tapping it with a hammer to break through the thin bone behind the eyes and into the brain. He then “swirled” it to sever the neural pathways of Howard’s frontal lobes.

When Howard awoke, he was feverish, bruised, and empty. “I was like a zombie,” he later said. The surgery had stolen his sense of self. He was soon cast out of his home and spent years drifting through institutions, group homes, and prisons, struggling with alcoholism and homelessness.

But Howard’s story didn’t end in tragedy. In his 50s, he began piecing together his past, uncovering Freeman’s archived notes and confronting the truth of what had been done to him. In 2007, he published My Lobotomy — a haunting memoir that gave voice to thousands who could not speak for themselves.

Howard Dully went on to live quietly as a bus driver, husband, and father, his life a testament to survival after unimaginable betrayal. Yet, one question lingered in his heart until the end:

“Why did my father let this happen?”