Doctor's Simple Invention Using Only A Shampoo Bottle Cuts Patients' Mortality Rates By 75%

Sep 12, 2018 by apost team

With so many fancy machines and expensive degrees, it is easy to forget that some of the best medical options are the cheapest. The best doctors are not always the people who can memorize facts perfectly. Sometimes, the best doctors are the ones who find creative, cheap solutions to challenging problems.

Dr. Mohammod Jobayer Chisti is making news for his ingenious, creative solution to a common issue. When Dr. Chisti was just a medical intern, he saw trends that made him horrified. On his first day of work, he came home crying. As he watched his three children play together, he felt completely helpless.

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The problem was related to pneumonia-related deaths. Since that fateful day as an intern, Dr. Chisti has worked to find cheap solutions to a major medical problem. He has worked as a doctor in a Bangladesh hospital for 20 years.

Each year, 920,000 children die from pneumonia, and many of these deaths could be preventable. Most of the childhood deaths occur in impoverished areas where parents do not have enough money for expensive treatments.

One of the most dangerous complications of pneumonia is respiratory problems. Western hospitals use expensive ventilators to help patients breathe. Since these ventilators cost as much as $15,0000, poorer hospitals cannot afford them.

When Dr. Chisti saw his young patients dying from pneumonia, he knew that he had to do something. After years of research, he discovered that $1.25 was all it took to help. He used a plastic shampoo bottle and plastic tubing to make a breathing device.

Basically, the device creates pressure in the patient's airways. This forces small air sacs within the lungs to open up. As a result, pneumonia patients are able to breathe properly. The device is used in conjunction with an oxygen tank. The children use the oxygen tank when they inhale. When they exhale, they breathe into the plastic tubing. The tube is inserted into a shampoo bottle that is filled with water. When the child exhales, it produces bubbles.

Initially, Dr. Chisti tested the device out on four or five random patients. Within just a few hours, they saw a drastic improvement. Soon, the Bangladesh hospital was using this affordable device on everyone. In addition to being cheaper than a $15,000 ventilator, the device is more efficient at using oxygen. In the past, the hospital paid $30,000 for oxygen. Now, the hospital only pays $6,0000.

Like most medical devices, this one needs to undergo more tests before it can be used on a broader basis. Currently, Dr. Chisti has used the device on more than 600 children. Since he started using the shampoo bottles, he has reduced the children's mortality rate by 75 percent.

Two decades ago, Dr. Chisti promised himself that he would find a way to end these preventable deaths. He has lived up to that promise and may be able to save more children around the world from dying. If more hospitals can adopt this cheap device, the number of childhood pneumonia deaths will drastically fall. Now, Dr. Chisti's hospital has a pneumonia mortality rate for children that approaches zero.

Spread the word about this amazing, inexpensive way to keep children from dying.