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As cases of COVID-19 surged in India, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) provided a rapid-response grant towards Lifebox’s India COVID-19 emergency efforts.

From western India, to the east. Next on the itinerary was the north-eastern state of Bihar. As the traffic of the state’s capital – Patna – gave way to dirt roads and palm-studded countryside, the rugged beauty of Bihar was breathtaking. But eighty-nine percent of Bihar’s 104 million people live in rural areas, and health […]

It seemed like fate that I landed in India exactly ten years to the day that I first arrived as a fresh-faced backpacker. One decade later, and hopefully a little wiser, I was back as part of my remit at Lifebox – working with healthcare teams across this vast country to make anaesthesia safer. Two […]

With generous funding from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Lifebox has a three year-grant to develop its oximetry programmes across India. With a population of 1.3 billion and a landscape that ranges from the mighty peaks of the Himalayas to the deserts in the west – as well as a 7,000 km coastline – safer surgery […]

Lifebox is providing direct assistance to our anesthesia partners in Maharashtra – one of India’s worst affected states – and where Lifebox has worked with anesthesia and surgical partners for the past five years. In the district of Nanded, we are working with our partners to provide equipment to rural hospitals for the safe management […]

It’s called ‘global surgery’ because there’s not a single health system in the world that can support a healthy population without providing surgical care; but that doesn’t mean there’s a one size fits all solution. Different countries have different needs – different approaches – and different groups championing routes to the same conclusion: that access […]

Access to healthcare is limited by a lack of resources and staff with only 0.7 physicians and 1.1 nurses per 1,000 population. Of its 15,500 operating rooms, over 7,000 lack pulse oximetry – leaving millions of people to undergo surgery at great risk. So it will come as no surprise that India is a key […]

A small valley shadowed by mountains on all sides, the hard terrain, political and tribal tensions, and crippling under-investment in this northeast state of India means that for nearly 3 million people, an operating room is usually three to five hours away. Without surgery in the peripheral districts, government hospitals in the capital carry huge […]

As Dr Rebecca Jacob makes clear in her interview for International Women’s Day, unsafe surgery in India isn’t a case of unwillingness – it’s context that can kill. We’ve worked with hospitals across the country to put pulse oximeters in the hands of anaesthesia providers who need them. Environment-appropriate monitors, that won’t cut out when […]

Dr. Giri describes to Lifebox the many ways that pulse oximeters are used. Normally, the pulse oximeters are used for anesthesia purposes. However, Dr. Giri told us that they have often proven vital for a certain group of patients: snake bite victims. “Suppose in the middle of the night, a snake bite victim comes here […]