Jorge Odon: The Unpredictable Nature of Innovation

An amazing piece featured on Inc.com magnificently illustrates how a moment of inspiration - extracting a loose cork from inside an empty wine bottle - resulted in an innovative way to safely deliver babies who get stuck in the birth canal. The story of Jorge Odon, a brilliant car mechanic with no medical background, highlights the unpredictable nature of innovation. The genius idea came to Odon while sleeping. In some way, his unconscious managed to make the connection from a YouTube video he had just reenacted with his friends on extracting a cork from a bottle of wine using a plastic bag to the epiphany that the same trick may help save babies during difficult deliveries. This 59-year-old Argentinian, built his prototype at home using his daughter’s doll as the trapped baby, a glass jar as the womb in addition to a sleeve and fabric bag sewn by his wife as the life-saving device.

As inconceivable as it may seem, the brilliant idea that took shape at Odon’s home was licensed for production by an American medical technology company and won the endorsement of the WHO (World Health Organization). With the groundbreaking Odon Device, a plastic bag is slipped inside a lubricated sleeve around the baby’s head by a birth attendant. Then, the attendant carefully inflates it to grip the head, pulling the bag slowly until the baby emerges. Doctors believe Jorge Odon's device has huge potential to decrease cesarean section births in rich countries and to save babies in poor ones. Are you intrigued? Watch Jorge Odon’s truly inspiring video featured below: