Topic: American Innovation -- For Export Only

[Glock32]

Article by Mark Steyn

The Toronto Star has one of those heartwarming miracle-operation hospital stories that newspapers run from time to time, whose meaning for American readers is something else entirely.

A 33-year-old Oklahoma man called Jon David Sacker (right) urgently needed a double-lung transplant after his body rejected the ones he'd received two years ago. So he went to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, but was too weak to undergo the operation.

The only possibility of saving him was something called the Hemolung Respiratory Assist System, which would stabilize his condition and buy time for the body to re-strengthen and for new lungs to be found.

There was no Hemolung RAS at UPMC, so they dialed around and found one at Novus Medical in Oakville, which is on Lake Ontario just south of Toronto. Murray Beaton of Novus agreed to loan the Hemolung to UPMC, and, given the urgency, offered to shorten the distance by driving down the Queen Elizabeth Way to meet the Pittsburgh guys in the wee small hours at a crossroads at Fort Erie, just across the Niagara River from Buffalo.

Now, if you're a patriotic American on the eve of Independence Day you're surely wondering: why the hell do we need to borrow state-of-the-art medical equipment from some cockamamie town in Canada no one's ever heard of?

But wait, it gets better: The Hemolung RAS was actually invented in Pittsburgh by a UPMC doctor and developed and sold by a Pittsburgh company founded by UPMC doctors. So why are there no Hemolungs in Pittsburgh? The Toronto Star explains:

Hemolungs should have been an easy option. They are made in Pittsburgh by ALung Technologies. The hitch was that there were no devices available in the United States, since they were not approved for use there.

All of the Hemolungs made by ALung had been shipped either to Europe or Canada, where they have been government approved.

Ah. So an American invention is already being used to save lives in Canada and Switzerland and Belgium and Denmark and Germany ...but has not been approved for use in America.

Full article:

http://www.steynonline.com/6458/american-innovation-for-export-only

[Pandora]

Can't stand it.  Every day, every damn day .......

I need a drink.  I'm sure it's five o'clock somewhere.

[AlanS]

Can't stand it.  Every day, every damn day .......

I need a drink.  I'm sure it's five o'clock somewhere.

After that story, I need a double.

[Libertas]

 

Libiots!  The most vile scourge ever to beddevil mankind!

[Glock32]

If you read the full article he goes on to talk about what a sclerotic process it is to introduce new innovations. In the 1920s when artificial insulin was invented, within two years it was already saving thousands of lives. Nowadays the same thing would probably take at least a decade to reach general patient use.

[Libertas]

If only they had greased bureaucratic palms at the FDA and filled the campaign coffers of politicians...perhaps lives could be saved...as it is these deaths are on the heads of those who refuse to please their masters!

I guess that's the BS they would have us believe...