Summary: [Introduction by David Cassak] Tom Fogarty explains that he became interested in medicine "by accident." He discusses his early design development and how he turned a clinical problem into a device that could solve the problem: "In this situation...it was almost like a lightbulb that went off. If you put a thin catheter system down, and you can make it bigger and then withdraw it and control the volume during withdrawal, you get the clot out. Essentially, I took what they call uretheral catheters, which are long, thin tubes. I cut the baby finger off a number 5 glove. I tied it on the cather system...and that was the first balloon catheter.
