An accident in 1977 left Niels Balle with a spinal cord injury. He was 14 at the time. Rectal irrigation was nowhere to be seen as a treatment option for bowel dysfunction. So, Niels used laxatives and digital stimulation, although the laxatives just aggravated the situation, and he had many bowel accidents highlighting – “it was a nightmare”. For years digital stimulation was part of his daily routine, although when he started working in a role that required a great deal of travelling his confidence in his bowel management reduced considerably. Niels was “noticeably spending more and more time on the toilet because he did not feel his rectum was empty and consequently began to feel stressed and insecure about his bowel management”.
Many years later and with bowel management always on his mind, Niels and six companions founded Qufora in 2006: a company that was to develop an easy-to-use water system that would help with managing bowel dysfunction. In 2007 prototypes of cones systems using gravity were developed, which meant that pressure was not required for instilling water. By 2013 Niels experienced using the very first developed cone rectal irrigation product. He recalls there was no hydrophilic coating on the cone and the tubing was extremely long. However, despite knowing that this could help his bowel problem, starting rectal irrigation felt like a big step. Nevertheless, Niels bit the bullet and soon realised that using rectal irrigation “changed his life” and allowed him to “take control of where and when he would use the toilet”. He was once again able to travel and use his “Qufora cone system at an airport with confidence”. With this system working so well for Niels he did not believe any changes to the product were necessary. Although, his mindset transformed when the research and development team felt that they could make improvements that would devise an even easier to use product. Hence, in 2017 saw a lubricated single use cone.
Qufora, not a company for sitting on their laurels, continued to ask the question themselves and to patients, how can we enhance this product? And so, 2022 saw the launch of the Red Dot Award winning Qufora IrriSedo Flow system. Change can be unsettling for many of us, especially when it involves altering something in our routines. However, once Niels had the opportunity to see and experience the enhancements of the new product, its benefits became clear, and any initial unease faded away.
With his years of involvement and experience he rates the Qufora IrriSedo Flow cone as a new way of irrigating, which has been highlighted in the positive feedback received from healthcare professionals. Niels classes the Qufora IrriSedo Flow product as a “fantastic irrigation system”, and fully believes that Qufora have really hit the spot when it comes to developing a cone system with the patient in mind.
