In December 1960, 12-year-old Howard Dully became one of the youngest victims of America’s most infamous medical procedure: the transorbital “ice-pick” lobotomy, performed by the self-styled “father of lobotomy,” Dr. Walter Freeman.
Howard’s stepmother, convinced he was “unmanageable” and possibly schizophrenic (a diagnosis other doctors rejected), persuaded his father to consent. On December 16, 1960, Freeman inserted a modified ice-pick-like tool (the orbitoclast) under Howard’s eyelids, hammered it through the thin bone into his brain, and swept it side-to-side to sever connections to the frontal lobes. The entire operation took minutes. No anaesthesia beyond electroshock. No consent from the child.
Howard woke up with black eyes, a fever, and a hollowed-out feeling. “I felt like a zombie,” he later said. “Like my soul had been erased.”
A Life Destroyed, Then Reclaimed
The lobotomy didn’t “cure” Howard — it stole his childhood.
He was expelled from the family home, bounced between mental institutions, foster homes, juvenile detention, and eventually prison. For decades he battled alcoholism, homelessness, and suicidal despair, carrying the secret shame of what had been done to him.
In his 50s, with the help of NPR producer David Isay, Howard confronted the truth. They uncovered Freeman’s personal files — photographs, including chilling notes calling Howard “a very nice boy” just hours before destroying his mind.
In 2005, their radio documentary My Lobotomy aired on NPR’s Sound Portraits.
In 2007, Howard published his memoir My Lobotomy — a raw, unflinching account that exposed the barbarity of mid-century psychosurgery.
The Man Behind the Procedure
Walter Freeman performed nearly 3,500 lobotomies, often in travelling “lobotomobiles,” claiming he could “cure” everything from depression to “rebelliousness” in children. His transorbital technique required only minutes and cost little, making it disturbingly popular in an era desperate for mental-health solutions.
Howard was one of the last children to receive it — the procedure was largely abandoned by the mid-1960s with the rise of psychiatric medication.
A Life Rebuilt
Against impossible odds, Howard rebuilt his life:
Became a bus driver in California
Married and raised a family
Spoke publicly about his experience to prevent similar abuses
He never fully regained what was taken — memory gaps, emotional flatness, chronic pain — but he found purpose in telling his truth.
His final unanswered question:
“Why did my own father let them do this to me?”
Howard Dully died on March 8, 2025, aged 76, having lived far longer — and far more fully — than anyone predicted after Freeman’s ice-pick stole his childhood.
His story remains one of the most powerful indictments of medical hubris in history — and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
