In 2010 we sent him our first pulse oximeter. Lifebox wasn’t even Lifebox back then – it was the Global Pulse Oximetry Project, fresh from a worldwide tendering process led by WHO and the WFSA for an ideal monitor to thrive in low-resource settings. We were perched on a desk in a third floor room […]
The 70,000 global pulse oximeter gap keeps us busy. Not a day goes by without a Lifebox oximeter winging its way across earth and sea and sky to anaesthesia providers in the most remote hospitals worldwide, delivering life-saving surgery without this life-saving equipment. But some days the skies are heavier than others! In October 2013, […]
Celebrities may not read their reviews, but at Lifebox, we do. Avidly. (Don’t you bet the celebrities do too?) We want to know what delegates found most useful – or not – about our workshops. We want to know how colleagues are doing this week with the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist at our pilot site in […]
Lifebox sent an oximeter and the hospital found funding to buy some additional units. But Benson told us some very difficult stories about his anaesthesia practice, and we knew that these few units wouldn’t be enough to keep patients safely monitored in the operating rooms across the region. That was back in October. Coming on for […]
When we first heard about the Boston Lifebox Challenge earlier this year, we knew better than to get caught in the crossfire! We watched as ideas, enthusiasm and events ricocheted across the city, and are thrilled to duck and share, with our thanks, the below article straight from the website of one of the challengers: “When […]
But the civil wars of the 1980s and 90s wrecked lives and infrastructure. The school of anaesthesia in the capital Monrovia closed down, and the one in Phebe was always on the retreat to ‘safer areas.’ Training halted and many anaesthetists were amongst those killed. Today there are just 22 nurse anaesthetists for a population […]
Robert is the director of Diamedica, a manufacturer of anaesthesia equipment fit for purpose in low-resource settings. He recently returned from Chad, in central Africa, where he took a Lifebox pulse oximeter to leave alongside the Glostavent anaesthesia machine he went to install. He sent us an update after his return: A few hours by […]
Monday morning we were happy to see our our old friend Dr Rebecca Jacob, newest president of the Indian Association of Pediatric Anesthesiologists, heading across the red carpet. She brought along the WFSA paediatric committee to say hi (and give a high-drama demonstration of the oximeter!). They reminded us about how important it is to have a neonatal […]
“South Sudan is a brand new country, adjusting to its newfound independence. The infrastructure and the finances are not yet fully developed, and Juba Teaching Hospital frequently has no electricity or running water. However, when there is emergency surgery to be done, we have to work in spite of this. It is not uncommon to […]
Philip Ongom’s old pulse oximeter finally stopped working last February during an emergency caesarian section. Ask him about that moment and the anaesthetic officer, who has worked at a district hospital in Western Uganda for six years, remembers every detail with agitated clarity. “[The mother] had had eight pregnancies and five miscarriages – she needed this […]
