When children act, they ask:
what would happen?
What would happen if I pressed this button, acted this way, tried
this on? The urge to know, it seems, is programmed into us from
birth. It is the well from which each hypothesis springs. It is the
stone upon which progress stands. It is the spirit of curiosity that
pushes us at Children’s Hospital Colorado to explore the limits of
what’s possible.
Every day, our doctors perform feats that just decades ago would
have seemed preposterous: we can operate on the trachea of
an unborn baby and treat cancer with molecules engineered in
labs. Our doctors have developed ways to treat not just diseases,
but the genes that cause them. They’ve figured out how to avoid
costly and invasive endoscopies using a simple piece of string.
They’ve invented a new vital sign.
Some of these efforts are highlighted in this book. Many, many
more continue in operating rooms and offices, around conference
tables and in basement labs beneath the glamorless glare of
florescent light. Because as nice as it is to be r X