A story about persistence, innovation and seeing what others miss.
I am going to interrupt my regularly scheduled programming of providing timely economic and market updates to share what I think is a beautiful story with you. After all, it is mid-summer. Markets are trading rangebound, and the biggest news of the week was the release of the most recent Fed meeting minutes where—spoiler alert—it would seem the Fed is divided on whether to raise or lower rates and thus will likely do nothing. Oh, and there was another change in the status of the ceasefire that caused oil prices to rip higher—for now.
Now on to the story.
A local and distinguished physician by the name of Dr. Andrew Lam is a retina surgeon and professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In his spare time, he authored several books, including “Saving Sight” that’s about the pioneers of ophthalmology. In that book, he tells the story of a doctor and a pilot who saved the eyesight of millions.
On August 15th, 1940, war was raging across Europe. A Royal Air Force pilot named Gordon Cleaver was shot down by German planes over England. Badly injured and in terrible pain, Cleaver had sustained serious injuries to his eyes when bullets shattered the canopy of his plane and sent shards of plexiglass into his corneas. Now almost blind, Cleaver managed to survive by parachuting from his plane. When he was taken to a nearby hospital, he was examined by a young English ophthalmologist, Dr. Harold Ridley, who noted the plexiglass in Cleaver’s eyes. Ridley expected to find inflammation or infection which would normally be the case with an eye injury like this.
But Dr. Ridley noticed something very peculiar in this instance: the plastic fragments were not causing any inflammation or infection in Cleaver’s eyes. A few years later, when Dr. Ridley was removing a cataract from a patient’s eyes, a medical student who was assisting him said, “It’s a pity you can’t replace the cataract with a clear lens.” Ridley then remembered the inert plexiglass in Gordon Cleaver’s eyes, and he had an epiphany: What if he could fashion a lens made of plexiglass, plastic, or similar material that the body wouldn’t reject and implant it in a patient’s eyes?
Ridley’s idea of replacing a cataract with a clear lens was unheard of at the time. Implanting an artificial lens inside the eye was considered reckless by many surgeons. But Ridley persisted with his idea, engaging an English acrylic manufacturer to help him shape and produce a lens which could be surgically implanted in the eyes.
In November of 1949, Ridley attempted to implant a plastic lens after performing cataract surgery, but this was a failure because of some inflammation. His second attempt in February of 1950 was a success and so he went on to perform many more operations which were highly successful with many patients regaining perfect vision.
But contrary to what you might expect, Ridley’s discovery had disastrous consequences for his career as a physician and surgeon. Colleagues accused him of malpractice and ridiculed his ideas and even suggested that the lens manufacturers should be sued.
Ridley persisted and spent his career performing hundreds of these procedures over the next few decades but was still an outcast in the medical community. He even considered himself a failure when he ultimately retired from his medical practice in the early 70s.
Over the next few decades, surgeons who had learned of Ridley’s discovery perfected the procedure until it became a standard operation.
In the year 2000, at the age of 93, Dr. Ridley was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to the field of medicine, although he had never patented his lens and never received any compensation for it.
I love this story because it champions the courage and inventiveness of Dr. Ridley, but even more so it highlights his persistence, especially and most heroically in the face of such criticism and doubt. Ridley was skeptical of the accepted methods of treatment in his day, but never cynical. He stayed the course throughout his life, advancing science and medicine despite many doubters.
There is a lot of change happening around us right now, coming from every direction. Be a hopeful skeptic like Dr. Ridley: question assumptions, remain open to new ideas, and keep working steadily toward your goals. Avoid both complacency and cynicism. The future is rarely obvious in real time. It requires patience, discipline, and the willingness to stay committed when certainty is unavailable.
As always, we are grateful for the trust you place in us and remain committed to helping you stay focused on what matters most.
Written by a human.