Accidental Medical Discoveries

Many of the world’s most important and life-saving devices and techniques were often discovered purely by accident. Serendipity, timing, and luck played a part in the discovery of unintentional cures and breakthroughs:

A plastic shard in an RAF pilot’s eye leads to the use of plastic for contact lenses.
The inability to remove a titanium chamber from rabbit’s bone leads to dental implants.
Viagra was discovered by a group of chemists, working in the lab to find a new drug to alleviate the pain of angina pectoris.
A stretch of five weeks of unusually warm weather in 1928 played a role in assisting Dr. Alexander Fleming in his analysis of bacterial growth and the discovery of penicillin.
After studying the effects of the venom injected by the bite of a deadly pit viper snake, chemists developed a groundbreaking drug that works to control blood pressure.