Pumani bCPAP training films

This set of 13 films were created to train teams looking after premature babies with severe respiratory distress on how to use an innovative low cost CPAP machine. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) helps babies to breath by gently pushing an air/oxygen mix into their lungs. Normally too expensive for Africa, a group of students came up with an innovative idea, now being rolled out to Hospitals across the continent.

The idea of a bubble CPAP machine is very simple. It is a pump which pushes an air/oxygen mix through a bottle of water, supplying continuous pressure which helps babies with respiratory problems to keep breathing. The pressure can be increased or decreased by adding or taking water from the bottle.

The trouble is that normally such a machine costs five to six thousand dollars, too much for an African Hospital. And expensive donated equipment from the developed world tends to quickly end up in a store-room for lack of parts or expertise to service and repair it.

So the doctors at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi asked a group of visiting medical engineering students from Rice University, Texas to come up with a solution. As you can see in first 2 minute film, the students cracked the puzzle and came up with an idea which is now being rolled out to hospitals across Africa.

The films cover how to identify babies who could benefit from CPAP and to recognise the different types of respiratory distress; how to put them onto the machine; how to care for them while they are receiving CPAP, place an n/g tube etc; how to wean them off CPAP and how to clean and service the Pumani CPAP machine. Some of the modules would be good for any training looking at care of small or premature babies with severe respiratory distress.