You might think the greatest inventors are highly credentialed experts in their field. Yet some of the most impactful innovations come from regular folks with relatively modest resumes willing to look at a problem differently: Consider Frank Hursey.
Hursey invented QuikClot, a widely used first-aid product that stops severe bleeding. It evolved from his discovery that zeolite, a type of mineral, could act as a clotting agent and suck water out of a wound. This in turn causes a clot to form which blocks further bleeding.
Hursey wasn't a doctor or a chemist with an Ivy League college degree. In fact, by his late 30s, Hursey was a mechanical engineer and aspiring entrepreneur with a limited track record of success. But his ingenuity and willingness to think creatively paid off.
The result saved countless lives.
Find A Way To Experiment Like Frank Hursey
On a Saturday morning in 1983, Hursey staged an experiment in his basement in West Hartford, Conn. Through his work involving nitrogen and oxygen gas production, he had been interested in zeolite and studied its properties. He thought it could have uses to stop people and animals from bleeding out.
To test his theory, Hursey bought a mouse at a local pet store, made an incision and applied zeolite to the site. Almost immediately, the mouse stopped bleeding. "My wife was upstairs screaming, 'Don't hurt that mouse,' " Hursey recalled. Thanks to his discovery, the mouse recovered and Hursey let it go free unharmed.
And this simple experiment led to the development of QuikClot, now widely used by the military, law enforcement and hospital staff. Even Taylor Swift has said she likes the product.
"I carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds," she said in 2019, given her fear of an attack at one of her concerts.
QuikClot has saved several thousand lives, estimates Charles Barber, author of "In The Blood," a book about Hursey's invention. But unlike many innovations, this one came from what Barber calls "an untrained amateur."
"In 1983, Frank Hursey was a down-on-his-luck mechanical engineer by training with no Ph.D. and no M.D.," said Barber, a writer in residence at Wesleyan University. "Had he been a Ph.D. or M.D., he would've been trained out of doing this: 'You can't put an industrial product in the blood.' "
Hursey credits his curiosity for the breakthrough. "I've tried so many things, being curious, and none of them worked out," he said in an IBD interview. "But you've got to just continue to be extremely curious."
Frank Hursey: Subvert Conventional Wisdom To Innovate
Due to his outsider status, Hursey could let his creativity run wild. He was already toying with zeolite for industrial purposes to improve the oxygen generation process.
By challenging a core assumption of how to stop bleeding — that adding clotting agents worked best — Hursey flipped the conventional wisdom on its side. He figured that by sieving out water and thus separating water from blood platelets, he could achieve the same goal better.
"Nobody had ever thought to clot blood by taking something away," Barber said. "It was a paradigm-shifting concept" to reject the additive approach and focus on removing water from blood.
That's not the only unconventional aspect of Hursey's life.
Take Advantage Of Your Situation
Growing up poor in Dillon, S.C., Hursey left his hometown at age 19 to move to Connecticut. An uncle encouraged him to apply for an entry-level engineering position at Pratt & Whitney, now a unit of RTX. Armed with only a high school degree and a high score on a scientific aptitude test, Hursey got the job.
He spent two years at Pratt & Whitney helping to develop a fuel cell to supply astronauts in the Apollo program with electricity and water in space. Over the next decade, he worked full-time in a series of jobs while taking night classes at the University of Hartford.
"It took me 12 years to get a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering," he said. "It took another five years to get an M.S. (Master of Science) degree in business management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute."
Thanks to his success, degrees are now bestowed upon him. He recently received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford.
Hursey: Keep Plugging Away Even After Entrepreneurial Disappointments
Throughout his 20s, Hursey sought to build his own business. After struggling with his first two startups, he founded On Site Gas Systems in 1987 in Newington, Conn. It manufactures oxygen and nitrogen generators for many uses. Hursey, 79, remains the company's owner.
"Just yesterday, I spoke with an (On Site) engineer who's looking into adding oxygen to gasoline just before it enters the engine," he said. "We're exploring how to oxygenate the gas safely."
From a young age, Hursey caught the entrepreneurial bug. He watched his father punch a clock at a job operating a Linotype machine at a local newspaper.
"I didn't want to punch a clock," Hursey said. "I wanted to have my own business."
Think Positively
The Hursey family left Dillon owing money to several businesses and a physician. Decades later, Hursey tried to repay the debt but most of the local businesses had forgiven it. The physician had died and his wife refused the repayment.
"I was proud to live in Dillon but it was an embarrassment leaving," he said.
For motivation, Hursey turned to a book that his mother recommended, "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale. He read it and reread it. Peale's message resonated with him.
"It's true," Hursey said. "If you think positive and don't let negatives creep in, you will be successful."
Keep A 'Never Give Up' Attitude Like Hursey
As he developed the product that would become QuikClot, Hursey ran an ad in the Hartford Courant newspaper in search of an investor. A tinkerer at heart, Hursey wanted to bring in someone who excelled in sales and marketing.
"Only one person replied: Bart Gullong," Hursey recalled. "But he was exactly what I needed. Nobody else could've done it. Without Bart, the zeolite would still be sitting in a 55-gallon barrel."
In his book, Barber traces the uphill climb that Hursey and Gullong faced in getting the U.S. Army to embrace their invention. For years, one group of military decision-makers favored another clotting agent instead of QuikClot. But QuikClot proved a superior product and eventually won out.
"There were 100 different things that had to come together to get QuikClot's success," Hursey said. "The key is never giving up."
Ramp Up Slowly As You Succeed
As they built the company, Hursey and Gullong sought to rally the troops. They started with just a handful of employees and slowly ramped up as sales started to increase.
They toiled in relative obscurity. At the time, no one predicted that QuikClot would evolve into such an influential, lifesaving product and an essential addition to many first-aid kits.
In their early years, Hursey and Gullong would gather the workforce and give a toast. "Here's to all the people we'll save who will never know our names," they said.
Frank Hursey's Keys:
- Inventor of QuikClot, a lifesaving product that stops severe bleeding.
- Overcame: A pair of disappointing entrepreneurial startups before launching On Site Gas Systems in 1987, a company he still owns today.
- Lesson: "If you think positive and don't let negatives creep in, you will be successful. The key is never giving up."
