Expandable ribs

are a godsend for patients with severe scoliosis, but like much medical technology they will likely raise overall medical costs by letting these kids live longer and longer.

During residency, I'd sometimes take care of kids, usually with cerebal palsy, multiple dystrophy, and/or other big problems who developed increasingly severe, impossible to treat (then at least) scoliosis and basically slowly smothered because they couldn't breathe. Many of the kids were cognitively normal which made it particularly sad.