Valuing Life Over Profit
When I was a fellow and therapeutic endoscopy at the University of Hamburg Department of surgery, I observed that one of the problems was with regard to a piece of equipment known as a papillotome. This is a small plastic Teflon tube in which a wire is inserted that is electrified and then after being passed through a 3 foot endoscope would allow us to cut open a small sphincter muscle less than the size of a small pencil eraser. This would be only after being able to insert the tube into a tiny are opening the size of the head of a pin. Anatomically it was essential that this wire be oriented in a 12 o’clock position to avoid cutting blood vessels causing bleeding, cutting through the wall causing perforation or cutting into an adjacent organ known as the pancreas causing pancreatitis.
The problem with the commercially manufactured devices as well as the ones that we would hand make there at the university was that you could never predict the proper orientation of the wire. This meant that all over the world patients were at risk for dying of either bleeding, perforation, or pancreatitis. I viewed this as an opportunity to do what was essential and right because as a physician our goal is to always preserve life. When faced with these opportunities and difficulties and essential decisions you go back to the drawing board back to the beginning to understand the engineering of the product. It turns out that the Teflon tubing which is extruded and then placed on rules did not have any specific memory with regard to shape. Therefore when the wires were placed to electrify the device there was no predicting which direction they would orient even though it appeared that they were placed in a 12 o’clock orientation. The secret as I came to learn was that in order to maintain the Teflon in a particular direction it needed to be heated almost to its melting point of 745°. Once you do this and then would cool it down in a specific shape, it would assume the memory of that shape and then the wire could be inserted and you would always have a 12 o’clock true papillotome.
The results going forward we’re remarkable with no further difficulty on the part of the endoscopist to perform the procedure flawlessly and no further risk to the patient. At that time I patented the idea and was going to provide it to a company that would market it and therefore I could benefit from licensing the patent to that company. Then for the first time in my life I realized the danger of being an innovator. Because they were afraid of loss of income, the other companies who had turned down my initial offer instead chose to begin a lawsuit to restrict the use of the device and it’s new and proper safer form. Nothing would have prepared me in my life to have been attacked in that manner.
However, I came to realize that businesses don’t care about people they only care about money and they will do whatever they can to make money even if it means sacrificing the lives or wellness of people. Since I realized I could not change that corporate culture, I decided that I would provide the patent in a non-restricted open manner do all companies without requirement for licensing fees. It was far more important for me at that time that all companies would adopt the engineering and technology to properly produce these tools that would protect lives rather than put them in danger. Some might say that I lost the ability to have my name become famous and to make a lot of money. However for me, the attack on my character made me realize but since I could not change the way corporations would behave, I could certainly do things to protect the patients I swore to care for and protect. I think the most important lesson here is that there is no amount of fame or money they can replace your moral principles because you cannot live with the knowledge that’s so many would be harmed and face death because of one’s selfishness.
