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Keeping premature babies alive inspires my innovative ventilators – Amadi, NLNG $100,000 prize winner
A few weeks ago, Nigeria LNG Limited, sponsor of the $100,000 Nigerian Prize for Science award announced a Nigerian Professor of Medical Engineering and Technology at the Imperial College London, Hippolite Amadi, as the 2023 winner of the annual award with his work on respiratory technologies for keeping Nigerian newborns alive.
Amadi, who is also the author of the book ‘Born to Live, Not to Die’, tells ANGELA ONWUZOO how his solar-powered non-invasive neonatal ventilator – now considered the gold standard in the care of premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome, has saved many premature babies in Nigeria from needless death.
Your winning innovations comprise a non-invasive Neonatal Ventilator, an Oxygen Delivery Blender System and an Oxygen Splitter System, all powered by solar energy. Could you share your journey into developing technologies for newborn care in Nigeria?
The problem of technology for newborn care in Nigeria dates back many years. It was identified as a problem and that was why I was brought into it. It was a journey that started 27 years ago. I had graduated from the university just about nine years before I came one-on-one with the problem of neonates in Nigeria.
I was doing some other things in medical engineering when somebody felt that what this guy was doing with medical science could be leveraged.
They said why don’t we tell him that we have this problem, and this was a paediatrician at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. I was attending a conference in Calabar and this came up and somebody, an elder from Calabar told the Head of Paediatrics at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital that “I would connect you to Hippolite. Maybe he would have something to suggest.” That was how I was taken to St. Margaret’s Hospital, Calabar, which is where they house the special care baby unit of the teaching hospital.
When I walked in there, I saw tiny babies (premature babies) inside incubators. Before that time, I had not seen babies that were that small. It was the first time I had seen those tiny little creatures.
How old were they?
These babies were between one day and one week old. I was just wowed at the sight and I was quite inquisitive. Part of this story is told in my book titled, ‘Born to Live, Not to Die’.
So, after seeing those babies, I was told what I was never wanted to hear. So, this doctor said to me, these babies you are seeing here, by tomorrow, you will not see some of them. And I didn’t know what it meant.
I asked him what that meant and he said they would have died. That was when the passion gripped me. So why would they die; are you going to kill them, I asked him. He said, no, because they are not being kept warm appropriately. And I asked, are these not incubators? And I was told they were not working.
The doctor said since there were no functional incubators, they could not keep them warm and by tomorrow, many of them would have died. He said that was how the babies came here. He pointed out that they have tried their best but many of them would die, especially the very tiny ones.
So they said to me, that is the reason we brought you here. Would you be able to do anything? That was how the journey began, especially the need to keep the babies warm. So I entered into brainstorming to create something that would keep babies warm.
When I succeeded, it turned out that all the babies had not been saved, so there were other things, other factors. That brought me deeper into neonatal research.
What inspired you the most?
My major concern was to fight the injustice perpetrated against these tiny babies. These babies are largely on their own. The challenges were there but I was determined to solve the problem because largely, these babies are the most unrecognised.
The parents can’t fight the injustice against their babies. Their parents are naïve. They are like on their own. Even when the paediatricians complain about what they do not have, the management of the hospitals rarely pay attention to them. And I observed all these things.
Sometimes some of these paediatricians will use their own money to buy things, to apply, to help these babies survive. I saw babies die as a result of preventable causes and there are little things that could have prevented their death. I was surprised when I saw a father in a hospital in Lagos pay N100,000 daily for a ventilator for his premature baby to survive. Imagine paying N100 000 daily for a ventilator to support a baby to breathe. The man wanted his baby to live.
So I started creating solutions and the interventions are under one umbrella that we now refer to as the ‘Neonatal Rescue Scheme’. The concept has reduced neonatal mortality by over 85 per cent in Niger State Nigeria and it’s a lesson for low- and middle-income countries.
Can you tell us how you entered the NLNG prize for science and did you know that you would win?
I had the premonition that I was going to win. But I didn’t want to pay attention to it because the people who advised me to enter for the award told them that I had no time for that because I was very busy. However, some Nigerian professors called me and requested that I enter and these are people who know the work I have done.
Initially, I told them that I had no time for that because I was handling this big assignment and I didn’t want any distraction. It was the biggest assignment of my career. So after much persuasion, I set out for one week and entered for the award. I didn’t even know that I won. It was my cousin in Port Harcourt who sent me a text that my name is all over Nigeria and that I won the NLNG prize for science.
I feel excited about winning this award and it is a victory for tiny babies. What would such babies do? The first time your baby sees your face, the baby smiles. I said I’ve got to represent them. I began to dance. Yes, I had to dance because that is the excitement of the babies.
I had to represent them right there on that stage. I started dancing. You know, when that beat comes up, celebrate good times. I had to do what babies would normally do. So that’s the excitement there, yes I am excited about winning the award.
What were the challenges you faced developing these respiratory technologies and are they well received in Nigeria and on the continent?
I found it difficult developing these respiratory technologies but I didn’t give up. There were endless challenges but I managed to surmount them. I put my life on the line. It all started in 1996. I was able to progressively see what happened around these poor babies and vowed to save them from dying.
I did not have money anywhere. I had a completely different formula. What I have achieved is enormous. But I didn’t spend millions to achieve it. So, the way I did it was by making use of the people who have the problem and presenting the problem in a way that they could solve it by making use of their money. So there was no support anywhere.
So, I was not bothered about the challenges but the solution. Some people may not promote the use of the device because their primary driving force is not to live but to make money. That would be a challenge and they would not support it. The ones that have accepted it are enjoying medicine; the technology is ours
Since you introduced respiratory technologies, any collaboration with the government?
I have collaborated with the Niger State government but no other state government has reached out to me. Maybe the government is not interested