Milton Edgerton, Plastic Surgeon Pioneer in Gender Reassignment, Dies

Dr. Milton Thomas Edgerton, a pioneering plastic surgeon, died in May after losing his three-year battle against multiple myeloma and malignant melanoma.

Edgerton, who was a trailblazing reconstructive surgeon for children and transgender people, died peacefully at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the age of 96 on May 17, according to Legacy.com.

He joined Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951, directing the Plastic Surgery division after completing his surgical training there. From that day forward, he played a pivotal role in Johns Hopkins history in reconstructive surgery, according to the university’s website.

Edgerton put together the university hospital’s Division of Plastic Surgery and also launched the Johns Hopkins Plastic Surgery Training Program. While serving as professor of plastic surgery, he also worked as its first full-time chief of plastic surgery.

Edgerton’s initial work focused on children with craniofacial deformities, and while so engaged was the first plastic surgeon to correct orbital hypertelorism, an abnormally large distance between the eyes.

In 1965 Edgerton and two other doctors founded the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic, "the first time an American hospital performed sex-reassignment surgeries," The Washington Post reported.

Edgerton referred to those surgeries as "gender-confirmation surgery, not gender-change surgery," according to the Post.

"Through the clinic, his patients included writer Dawn Simmons (the former Gordon Hall), who once praised his ‘miraculous hands’ and claimed that Dr. Edgerton’s surgery was so successful she had become pregnant," The Washington Post reported.

After serving 16 years at Johns Hopkins, Edgerton joined the staff at University of Virginia Medical Center, where he served as chairman of the Division of Plastic Surgery and then chair of the Department of Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery (surgery relating to the jaw and face).

During his career he worked in and trained others in the following areas, according to Legacy.com: head and neck cancer reconstruction, facial palsy reconstruction, burn reconstruction, hand surgery, microsurgery, breast reconstruction, transgender surgery, cleft lip and palate surgery, ear reconstruction, craniofacial surgery, and cosmetic surgery.

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