Low-Cost Cooling Device Prevents Brain Damage in Oxygen-Deprived Newborns
When babies are deprived of oxygen before birth, brain damage and disorders such as cerebral palsy can occur. A common cause of this deficiency is knotting of the umbilical cord, and in developing nations, untrained delivery, anemia, and malnutrition during pregnancy can also contribute to oxygen deprivation. Extended cooling can prevent brain injuries, but this treatment is not always available in developing regions where advanced medical care is scare. Johns Hopkins University undergraduates have devised a low-tech $40 unit to provide protective cooling in the absence of equipment that can cost $12,000. The device, called the Cooling Cure, lowers a newborn's temperature by about 6 degrees F for three days - a treatment that has been shown to protect the child from brain damage if administered shortly after a loss of oxygen has occurred. The device, simply made of a clay pot, plastic-lined basket, sand, instant cold pack powder, and a temperature sensor, is powered by two AA batteries.
Transcript
00:00:07 a team of biomedical engineering undergraduates at Johns Hopkins University has invented a lowcost cooling device to prevent brain damage in oxygen deprived newborns when Advanced Medical Technology is not available I started this project because it has bigger impact for developing countries especially this disease oxygen deficiency when the neonat born is very
00:00:31 common in developing countries the project started off for me as something that I was doing for a grade for a class however by the time that we were done with the class I had really grown attached to it not just because I thought it was a cool engineering Endeavor but also because I saw that it really had the potential to make a difference the device made of a clay pot
00:00:53 a plastic lined basket sand instant cold pack powder and a temperature sensor is designed to be as low Tech as possible it's powered by only two AAA batteries the purpose of the device is to cool the newborn for 3 Days down to an inner body temperature of 92° we had to make sure to keep the electronics at a minimum and yet still make it easy to understand for the healthc care practitioner that's
00:01:18 going to be using the device in the developing World well potentially it could change the world by uh reducing the incidence of cop paly uh in underdeveloped countries by approximately 40% I think it's an important Advance because it puts a cooling device in the hands of people in countries who can't afford the device that we use and means that a baby who
00:01:41 has asphyxia could be saved from cereal paly we can actually really cool down the neon AG with eal effect as a current technology develop in the United States and by simply having this device it can actually change their life and change their future [Music]