A long time ago (more than 3 decades by now), we worked on a crash project to bring a colon lavage preparation (this is a concoction that clears out one’s bowels) to the market. At the time, the risk of death from bowel surgery was unacceptably high. And, the chance of having the patient develop an infection resulting from the surgery was almost certain. The goal of this new product was to cut those situations close to zero.
More than 3 decades ago, bowel surgery was the scourge of medicine. Folks undergoing such procedures were pretty much assured they would develop complications due to infection. Those infection rates were well upwards of 90%! The death rate was pretty high, too. Of course, not operating on these folks guaranteed the patients almost certain death.
While reading the New York Times (NYT) this past Sunday (What? You don’t?), I was struck once again how the law of unintended circumstances comes into play. [Ed: This was written 3 June 2012.] The Times’ front page article headline read: “The $2.7 Trillion Medical Bill”, which really focused on just one medical procedure- colonoscopic exams.
Continue reading Another Example of Unintended Circumstances
