The Invention of the Retractable Needle
It is funny sometimes the people you run into. In the company where my husband is a manager, there is another manager with whom he is friendly who is the sister of an NFL quarterback. (I am NOT kidding.) Some years back, when my husband had been downsized and we were struggling to survive on unemployment, he went out and got a low paying, hourly job in a local grocery store. Another cashier there, nice guy and hard worker, used to talk with my husband frequently. One day, he mentioned that the night before, his brother had taken him out to dinner and how much do you think a glass of claret was in his brother's club? Well, my husband had no idea, but the answer was $500. (A glass!) Of course, the question of why one brother was working in a grocery store as a cashier and one was able to live such an extravagent life came up. The other fellow told my husband this story: When his brother and sister-in-law had their only child, a beautiful little girl, something was wrong. She had an inherited, genetic disease and frequently had to be in and out of hospitals. There were constant blood tests and both parents were, as you could guess, very distraught about the whole situation. One day, as the father sat watching his daughter get another round of tests and injections, he noticed the nurse disposing of the used needle in the bio-hazard bag. He knew that needle sticks with unclean needles are a major danger (especially for nurses in a hospital) and wondered if there was anything that could be done. As he sat nervously clicking his ball point pen, in, out, in, out, he put two and two together and realized that if someone could make a retractable NEEDLE, then that would stop the danger of needle sticks from dirty, used needles. He went on to find people who were interested in producing this needle. Once it was a reality, he sold the whole thing to a medical company and, well, you can guess the rest of the story.