Two plastic surgeons were born into a large family as the second set of twins.

There were eight siblings, five girls and three boys. The father was a ranch hand who moved the large family to Borger, Texas to try his luck in the oil boom of the early 1920.

Because of the financial disaster of the time, he became a house painter and an alcoholic. The mother took in boarders to keep the family fed. She was a strong lady and encouraged the boys to stay in school and work their way through college and medical school.

The older brother's journey

The older brother had migrated to Los Angeles and became a tooling engineer for Douglas Aircraft. He was able to get his young brothers jobs on the swing shift so they could attend UCLA. They went on to medical school and surgical training then moved back to the Los Angeles area.

Dr. John's personal life

Along the way, Dr. John managed to have six wives and five children. His second wife was Eva Gabor. There is one chapter devoted to each wife and some special friends, colleagues, and a long list of famous patients that I cannot name for obvious privacy reasons.