But what about the love story between the Dowdys? Of senses lost,
companionship, assistance, and guidance? The inspirational camaraderie
was born of disability and sustained by mutual dependency and a desire
for independence. Will we forfeit resiliency when all our diseases are
cured? Do we cheapen triumph when all our tragedies are mitigated?
THE NEXT DECADES“You are a biased surgeon who is shilling for the medical device industry,”
you may be thinking.
I don’t think so. I have tried to be completely honest about my
impressions of the shortcomings of the medical device clearance process.
Moreover, I have criticized the appalling lack of implant registries in
America, and the embarrassing lack of transparency among some of the
device manufacturers in our world.
Recent magazine articles, books, and an exposé documentary highlight
the frightening downside of implants. In the 2018 film The Bleeding Edge,
there is a sickening and cringeworthy scene of an FDA panel debating
approval of the Essure implantable birth control device, even joking about
what would happen to the reviewers if the device ever proved to be
dangerous. This is betrayal of the highest order.
It is actually my belief in the ascendancy of modern medicine in its
ability to powerfully and beautifully improve the lives of our fellow man
that compels me to simultaneously celebrate the dramatic transformation
of medicine over the centuries (and the last seventy-five years in
particular) and ferociously criticize our flawed implant evaluation system,
the occasional bad actor among device manufacturers, and the infrequent
soulless doctor who greedily treats his patients exclusively for his own
benefit.
If there is a hell, it will be populated by caregivers who callously, or
worse, intentionally, injured the vulnerable in their care. A human is never
more susceptible than when they are unconscious on an operating room
table. The privilege, and weighty burden of responsibility, of caring for
another being when they are defenseless is immense, and to violate that
sacred trust is unconscionable. Laura Beil’s chilling story of Dr.