Thousands of well intentioned donations are made to developing countries every year but many of these do not achieve what was hoped; they don’t make it to the intended recipient, or they’re unfit for purpose when they do. I hope I can persuade you that this is not the case for Lifebox oximeters. I was […]
Category: Christmas appeal
Lifebox Q and A: El Salvador—education, education, education
A pulse oximeter in the operating theatre doesn’t make surgery safer; it’s the anaesthesia provider using the oximeter effectively who will save lives. For Lifebox, the BMJ’s Christmas charity, provision of education is inseparable from donating equipment. That’s why we’re excited to share a recent conversation with Sandra Leal the president of the association of medical […]
Geoffrey Roberts on using Lifebox pulse oximeters in Zambia
My wife and I arrived in Zambia in August 2012 for a six month placement as surgical registrars in a busy rural hospital in the Eastern Province. This was my first experience of hospital care in the developing world and I was soon working all hours of the day and night, operating on everything from […]
Lifebox Q and A: Togo—facing the facts and making a difference
When people talk about the crisis of unsafe anaesthesia worldwide, there’s one particular publication that is frequently referenced—it’s too shocking to ignore. “Deaths associated with anaesthesia in Togo, West Africa,” published in Tropical Doctor in 2005, demonstrated that anaesthesia mortality in Togo could be as high as 1:133 patients. Lifebox recently spoke to lead author […]
BMJ Christmas appeal—Tom Bashford: Into thin air
“Can I ask your advice doctor?” The recovery nurse who I had been teaching looked puzzled. “I have been asked by some of my colleagues on the wards how to wake up patients who have not recovered from their anaesthetic after one or two days. What do you suggest?” My heart sank; all of the […]
Lifebox Q and A: Rwanda—unmet surgical need and a surgical safety crisis.
Just 3.5% of the 234 million major operations taking place each year are in low-resource settings, often carried out in very dangerous conditions due to lack of resources and training. Lifebox Foundation, the BMJ’s christmas charity, works in more than 70 countries to improve the quality and safety of surgical care. They spoke recently with […]
Sophie Reshamwalla: Lifebox—is that the pulse oximeter charity?
Whenever I tell people I work for Lifebox, they often say, “Oh, is that the pulse oximeter charity?” I’ve heard this so many times now that it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that’s all we do—send out pulse oximeters. Don’t get me wrong, we do send out pulse oximeters, and they […]
Abhay Bang on saving children’s lives
In 1945 my father had just been released from prison after taking part in India’s freedom movement and wanted to travel to the US to study economics. One week before he was due to leave he went to see Mahatma Gandhi and asked for his blessing. The old man looked at my father for a few […]
Barbara Bale: reaching sick children in remote rural areas in China
We are here in a remote mountainous village in Yunnan to understand more about what happens when a baby or young child gets sick. We already know too many die from illnesses that could be prevented or easily treated. […]
Alice Fay: Living with HIV in the Democratic Republic of Congo
I was in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recently and met a young man, Jean Claude (not his real name), aged 17, who is living with HIV. We are starting a new programme in the DRC about responding to HIV and I was very keen to have people living with HIV involved right from the […]