Thursday, November 14, 2013

Car Mechanic Dreams Up a Tool to Ease Births

NY Times   The idea came to Jorge Odón as he slept. Somehow, he said, his unconscious made the leap from a YouTube video he had just seen on extracting a lost cork from a wine bottle to the realization that the same parlor trick could save a baby stuck in the birth canal. 

Mr. Odón, 59, an Argentine car mechanic, built his first prototype in his kitchen, using a glass jar for a womb, his daughter’s doll for the trapped baby, and a fabric bag and sleeve sewn by his wife as his lifesaving device. 

Unlikely as it seems, the idea that took shape on his counter has won the enthusiastic endorsement of the World Health Organization and major donors, and an American medical technology company has just licensed it for production.[...]

 Doctors say it has enormous potential to save babies in poor countries, and perhaps to reduce cesarean section births in rich ones.

1 comment:

  1. nothing really new. clamps have been around for decades. just a new design. form of a clamp.

    us medical establishment will not allow it. too easy to use without a doctor. perhaps obamacare will demand its being used.

    if used for a shabbat birth, halachic question if can make a brit on shabbat eighth day.

    also, issues of is the boy a b'chor (pidyon haben, yerusha, etc.)

    shabbat shalom, since blogmaster will not see this till after shabbat.

    ReplyDelete

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