Shaun Murphy

Shaun Murphy, surgical resident at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital, is a character on ABC's The Good Doctor. He debuts in the first episode of the first season.

History
Shaun has autism and savant syndrome. In school, Shaun was bullied by his classmates because of his mental disorders, but his brother, Steve, would defend him. On one such occasion, he was brutally kicked and punched on a soccer field. Shaun's home life was not much better, as his father was abusive and his mother was too meek to stand up to him. He had a pet rabbit, which he would stroke to comfort himself.

One day, Shaun walks in on his brother reading a magazine, which Steve quickly hides. After some pressure from Shaun, Steve eventually relents and shows him the magazine, a pornographic one he received from a girl at school. Shaun is interested in it, but his mother walks in and Steve takes it and hides it.

Shaun is eventually thrown out of this school, setting off another one of his father's tirades about Shaun's inability to act like a "normal human being". Despite his mother's attempts to defend him and Steve's attempts to save Shaun from physical harm, his father's rage continues to grow as he blames Shaun for his struggles. Shaun remains silent, stroking his rabbit, as his father slaps him. Finally, his father snatches the rabbit and hurls it across the room, much to Shaun and Steve's horror. Shaun and Steve take the rabbit to the hospital where Dr. Aaron Glassman works, despite it not being a vet's office, as it was an emergency. Dr. Glassman breaks the news to the boys that the rabbit is dead. As Shaun begins to panic, Dr. Glassman suggests that they bury the rabbit and hold a funeral. Shaun asks if his rabbit is now in heaven and Dr. Glassman reluctantly assures him that he has, only for Shaun to shout, heartbroken, that he doesn't want his rabbit in heaven, he wants his rabbit to be here with him. Steve decides that they cannot go home and will find somewhere else to live. They move into an old, broken down school bus. Shaun asks if Steve thinks their mother is looking for them and Steve replies that he does not because, even though she loves them, she knows it's what's best for them. Steve gives Shaun a toy construction kit as a present and Shaun becomes particularly fascinated with the scalpel. Steve assures Shaun that he is the smart one and can do anything.

One day, Shaun and Steve are invited to play with other kids in a train yard. As they play hide-and-seek in the warehouse, Shaun and Steve climb up onto one of the trains. Steve turns around to say something to Shaun but missteps and falls off the side of the train, dying on impact as Shaun watches.

Shaun contacts Dr. Glassman and begins to run from the train yard, encountering him driving down the road and informing him that something has happened to his brother.

After growing up, Shaun ends up living on his own in Wisconsin. One morning, Shaun wakes up and gets on his way to a job interview at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. Along the way to the airport, he passes the soccer field where he was once bullied as a kid misses a pass and the soccer ball lands close by. He briefly remembers the beating he experienced before being snapped out of it by the kid asking him to pass the ball, which he does before continuing on his way. Once he has landed in San Jose, Shaun observes an accident resulting in several shards of shattered glass falling on a child. When a doctor rushes to help him, Shaun quickly observes and announces that the man is killing the boy by applying pressure to the wound in the wrong location, choking him, and steps in to help. When the doctor asks who he is, he introduces himself as a surgical resident at St. Bonaventure Hospital. Shaun determines that the boy's left lung is in distress and requests a knife from the crowd, but no one has one. He tells the doctor to start artificial respiration as the boy will soon stop breathing, then gets up to leave, much to the parents' and doctor's horror. In fact, he heads to security to ask them for one of the knives they have confiscated, but his autism makes it hard for him to accurately explain the situation and they refuse to give him one, so he steals one and starts running. The security officers chase and tackle him, but before he can be arrested, the boy's mother shows up and insists that he is trying to save her son's life. Using the knife, some alcohol from the duty-free store, and a tube from the back of a soda machine, Shaun creates a makeshift one-way valve, draining the excess air while keeping it from going back in and allowing the boy the breathe. The other doctor announces that Shaun just saved the boy's life and the crowd cheers. However, because of this emergency operation, Shaun is now late for his job interview and is unaware as Dr. Glassman tries to call him. An ambulance finally arrives, taking Shaun, the parents, and the boy to St. Bonaventure Hospital. Shaun notices the boy's ECG changing, though the paramedic assures him it did not despite his insistence. As Dr. Claire Browne takes the boy into surgery, Shaun begs her to do an echocardiogram on him, but Claire does not believe him and tells him to stay in the waiting room as she leaves, warning him that he will be removed from the building if he cannot behave himself. Shaun attempts his earlier strategy of making a break for it but is caught and put outside in the rain. His attempts to sneak back in are foiled by a security guard as he pulls out the toy scalpel his brother gave him to comfort himself. Soon, Claire, accompanied by Dr. Neil Melendez, emerges to ask why Shaun insisted that the boy have an echo. Shaun is unable to formulate a response until Claire rephrases the question as a statement. However, despite Dr. Melendez agreeing with Shaun's assessment, he receives a call informing him that the echo had been done with normal results and storms off. Claire begins to follow him, then turns back to ask Shaun to come with them. Dr. Melendez has Dr. Kalu show them the echo results and Shaun watches it multiple times before finally spotting a concave deformity in the right atrium, despite Dr. Kalu's insistence that it is not there. Dr. Melendez notes that, even if Shaun is right, that's not where a pericardial effusion manifests but Claire speaks up, noting that it is possible albeit rare, offering the explanation that a piece of glass may have entered the boy's bloodstream. Dr. Kalu isn't convinced, but Dr. Melendez goes through with it and they find the glass, just as Claire and Shaun said.

Shaun then meets with Dr. Glassman for lunch. Dr. Glassman informs him that the board meeting where they are discussing hiring Shaun reconvenes in forty-five minutes and asks him to stay until he gets back, which Shaun agrees to. While he waits, Dr. Browne comes over with her lunch to talk and sits across from him. She attempts to get him to ask her his questions about San Jose but he does not have any as Dr. Glassman gave him a map of the hospital and he found a map of San Jose online. Claire gives up and starts to leave, but Shaun stops her to ask why she was rude to him when they first met, nicer the second time, and now is making an effort to be his friend. When Claire is rendered speechless, Shaun asks which time she was pretending. Before she has to answer, Dr. Glassman arrives to take Shaun to the board meeting, leaving Claire behind to ponder his question. Shaun observes from the side as Dr. Glassman argues with Dr. Marcus Andrews about whether or not they should hire Shaun. Dr. Glassman eventually promises that, should Shaun not live up to what he knows he can do, he will be immediately released and Dr. Glassman will resign as president of the hospital. Allegra Aoki, another board member, suggests that they hear from Shaun and asks him why he wants to become a surgeon. Shaun momentarily spaces out, remembering how his brother died, before recounting how he watched his pet rabbit die and then, later, his brother. He explains that he was unable to save them and, because of that, neither of them were able to become adults and have children of their own. He says that he wants to make that possible for other people, and also adds that he hopes to have enough money to someday get a television. Allegra Aoki stands up and says that she wants to be the first to welcome Shaun to San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital as the rest of the board, even Dr. Andrews, applaud. Dr. Glassman informs Shaun that Dr. Melendez's team is going into surgery, so Shaun rushes to join them. After he is suited up, Dr. Melendez calls him over to put him on suction, informing him that it is all he will ever do as long as he's on his team. Shaun notes that Dr. Melendez is much better than the surgeons he saw in medical school and he has a lot to learn from him, then adds that Dr. Melendez is very arrogant and asks if it helps him be a better surgeon and if it hurts him as a person, and if that is worth it. Dr. Melendez does not respond.