Bambeau

Was reading the Nature blog about appropriate technology in resource limited settings. There was a post about the Rs 150 a piece microscope made entirely from bamboo by a Delhi based NGO.

I felt an overpowering sense of Deja Vu reading these lessons in thrift and innovativeness scripted people all over the world, who shared a common denominator of scarcity of resources.

My mind went back to the bear huggers we fashioned out of hair dryers for hypothermic patients, the bustle we used to create when we disconnected the plasmapheresis machine with everyone rushing to the basin to wash the filter and tubings for reuse, the extracorporeal Le veen shunts that we used to fashion out of IV sets for refractory ascites, the three bottle pleural drain of yore, the magnesium conundrum, times when Psy registrars would stare gaping openmouthedly when we gave their DTs Phosphorus enema through RT.

Many more that I have seen if not been participant in- Abhay Bang's abacus, the clean set for the dais that Dr Arole had fashioned out of things we use at home,the safety pin external fixator of Dr Mookhey.
I am sure many people will have other innovative things that they did to add to this list. Its unfortunate that we sometimes have to work with awfully inadequate resources. But as Gawande wondered: " And what I wondered was: How do they do it?How do they possibly take care of all the hernias and stab wounds, the appendicitis cases and tubercular abscesses — and sleep, live, survive themselves?"

And he received a reply: "Practicing medicine in India represents an experience of extremes: exhilaration from saving lives but frustration from often being a helpless spectator — both in the same day, many times over."

Do post in your experiences guys.Might not necessarily be medicine related.