Profession: Business Owner/Manager

Inspired by: My wife Megan was diagnosed with a viral inner ear infection years ago - very rare for healthy adults, especially without a precursor cold or sinus infection. We wondered how this could happen in a healthy adult.

After careful consideration, the only thing that came to mind was the stethoscope at work. At the time she worked as a NICU nurse.

In order to prevent cross-contamination in the NICU, each newborn has his or her own stethoscope assigned to the incubator. As healthcare providers make their rounds, they’re able to listen to each baby’s heart and lungs through the attached stethoscope without the risk of transferring germs. Or, at least that is the intent.

Our theory was that the viral inner ear infection was acquired from using a shared staff stethoscope at the bedside.

Several years passed until one day Megan was featured at work in a local newspaper. The picture was of her at the bedside. In the photo the stethoscope runs through an opening in the incubator. That's when genius struck, design a stethoscope that separates.