New Anesthesia Machine Could Improve Surgeries in Sierra Leone

Yatta Lahai and Fatama Alieu — two 30-year-old women in Sierra Leone — are waiting to have surgery that will restore their self-respect. Both women have fistula, a condition caused by prolonged obstructed labor that leaves a woman unable to control her urine, feces or both.

Lahai says she lost her husband and the rest of her family because of the condition. Alieu says she avoids going out in public because of the embarrassment. The women are now under the care of the West Africa Fistula Foundation (WAFF) in the city of Bo. The foundation is a safe haven for women, providing food and housing as well as fistula repair surgery.
 
Lahai and Alieu need what is called a urinary diversion, in which doctors essentially create a new bladder. However, the surgery requires general anesthesia — something WAFF and most other health facilities in Sierra Leone cannot provide, due to frequent power cuts and a lack of oxygen tanks.
A U.S.-based tech company, Gradian Health Systems, thinks it has found a way around the problem.
Gradian manufactures and sells the Universal Anesthesia Machine, called a UAM, and has sold the device to 23 developing countries. Several already are in use in Sierra Leone.
 

Machine’s benefits

Lina Sayed is the vice president of marketing strategy for Gradian. She says the machine is useful because, in an emergency, it can operate without electricity or an outside source of oxygen.

Fatmata Alieu stands outside her residence at the West Africa Fistula Foundation in Bo, Sierra Leone, May 10, 2016. (N. deVries/VOA) "When the electricity goes out, [the machine] pulls into draw over mode. Draw over mode is an old technology which has been built into our machine. It pulls in room air, which is 21% oxygen, and you mix it with the anesthetic agent and you can actually ventilate the patient and get him through surgery if you lose oxygen and electricity," Sayed said.

Sayed says the UAM's monitor has a battery backup, so doctors can measure the amount of oxygen that goes into the patient.

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