Jane Chen: A warm embrace that saves lives

Translator: Raquel Senra Fernández Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

Please close your eyes,

Pechade os ollos

and open your hands.

e abride as mans.

Now imagine what you could place in your hands:

Imaxinade o que collería nelas:

an apple, maybe your wallet.

unha mazá, quizais a carteira...

Now open your eyes.

Abride os ollos.

What about a life?

E unha vida?

What you see here is a premature baby.

O que vedes é un bebé prematuro.

He looks like he's resting peacefully, but in fact he's struggling to stay alive

Parece que descansa tranquilamente, mais loita pola súa vida

because he can't regulate his own body temperature.

porque non pode regular a temperatura corporal.

This baby is so tiny he doesn't have

É tan pequeno que non ten

enough fat on his body to stay warm.

graxa dabondo para manter a calor.

Sadly, 20 million babies like this

Por desgraza, 20 millóns destes bebés

are born every year around the world.

nacen cada ano en todo o mundo.

Four million of these babies die annually.

Catro millóns deles morren cada ano.

But the bigger problem is that the ones who do survive

O maior problema é que os que sobreviven

grow up with severe, long-term health problems.

medran con graves problemas de saúde a longo prazo.

The reason is because in the first month of a baby's life,

Isto débese a que no primeiro mes da vida humana,

its only job is to grow.

á única tarefa é medrar.

If it's battling hypothermia, its organs can't develop normally,

Se combate a hipotermia, os órganos non se poden desenvolver

resulting in a range of health problems

e así xorden unha variedade de problemas

from diabetes, to heart disease,

como a diabetes, doenzas cardíacas

to low I.Q.

ou un coeficiente intelectual baixo.

Imagine: Many of these problems could be prevented

Imaxinade que moitos destes problemas puidesen evitarse

if these babies were just kept warm.

se mantivésemos a estes bebés quentes.

That is the primary function of an incubator.

Esa é a función principal da incubadora,

But traditional incubators require electricity

mais a tradicional precisa electricidade

and cost up to 20 thousand dollars.

e custa ata 20 mil dólares.

So, you're not going to find them in rural areas of developing countries.

Nas zonas rurais dos países en vías de desenvolvemento non as teñen.

As a result, parents resort to local solutions

Entón, os pais recorren a solucións locais

like tying hot water bottles around their babies' bodies,

como rodear os bebés con bolsas de auga quente

or placing them under light bulbs like the ones you see here --

ou colocalos baixo lámpadas coma estas...

methods that are both ineffective and unsafe.

Estes métodos non son eficaces nin seguros.

I've seen this firsthand over and over again.

Puiden velo unha chea de veces.

On one of my first trips to India, I met this young woman, Sevitha,

Nunha das primeiras viaxes á India, coñecín a Sevitha,

who had just given birth to a tiny premature baby, Rani.

unha moza que dera a luz a Rani, un bebé prematuro e diminuto.

She took her baby to the nearest village clinic,

Levouno á clínica da vila máis próxima

and the doctor advised her to take Rani

e o doutor aconsellou levalo

to a city hospital so she could be placed in an incubator.

ao hospital da cidade para metelo na incubadora.

But that hospital was over four hours away,

Pero este hospital quedaba a 4 horas

and Sevitha didn't have the means to get there,

e Sevitha non tiña os medios para ir,

so her baby died.

así que o seu bebé morreu.

Inspired by this story, and dozens of other similar stories like this,

Inspirados por esta historia e por moitas outras similares,

my team and I realized what was needed was a local solution,

o meu equipo decatouse de que se precisaba unha solución local,

something that could work without electricity,

algo que funcionase sen electricidade,

that was simple enough for a mother or a midwife to use,

doado de usar para unha nai ou comadroa,

given that the majority of births still take place in the home.

xa que moitos bebés continúan nacendo nas casas.

We needed something that was portable,

Algo que fose portátil,

something that could be sterilized and reused across multiple babies

que puidese esterilizarse e reutilizarse,

and something ultra-low-cost,

e de moi baixo custo

compared to the 20,000 dollars

comparado cos 20 mil dólares

that an incubator in the U.S. costs.

que unha incubadora custa nos EE. UU.

So, this is what we came up with.

E isto é o que creamos.

What you see here looks nothing like an incubator.

Nada que ver cunha incubadora,

It looks like a small sleeping bag for a baby.

parece un saco de durmir,

You can open it up completely. It's waterproof.

podes abrilo de todo, é impermeable,

There's no seams inside so you can sterilize it very easily.

non ten costuras, así que é doado de esterilizar.

But the magic is in this pouch of wax.

Pero o truco está nesta bolsa de cera.

This is a phase-change material.

É un material que cambia de fase.

It's a wax-like substance with a melting point

A substancia é parecida á cera e derrete

of human body temperature, 37 degrees Celsius.

aos 37 ºC, a temperatura corporal humana.

You can melt this simply using hot water

Derrete con auga quente

and then when it melts it's able to maintain one constant temperature

e unha vez derretida mantén unha temperatura constante

for four to six hours at a time,

durante 4 ou 6 horas

after which you simply reheat the pouch.

e despois volves quentar a bolsa.

So, you then place it into this little pocket back here,

Colócala neste peto traseiro

and it creates a warm micro-environment

e crea un microclima cálido

for the baby.

para o bebé.

Looks simple, but we've reiterated this dozens of times

Parece sinxelo pero repetímolo moitas veces.

by going into the field to talk to doctors, moms and clinicians

Falamos con doutores, nais e médicos clínicos

to ensure that this really meets the needs of the local communities.

para cumprir as necesidades das comunidades locais.

We plan to launch this product in India in 2010,

Queremos presentalo na India en 2010

and the target price point will be 25 dollars,

e o prezo é de 25 dólares,

less than 0.1 percent of the cost

menos do 0,1% do custo

of a traditional incubator.

dunha incubadora tradicional.

Over the next five years we hope to save the lives

En 5 anos esperamos salvar as vidas

of almost a million babies.

de case un millón de bebés.

But the longer-term social impact is a reduction in population growth.

O impacto a longo prazo é a redución do crecemento demográfico.

This seems counterintuitive,

Parece contraditorio

but turns out that as infant mortality is reduced,

pero ao reducir a mortalidade infantil,

population sizes also decrease,

tamén diminúe a poboación,

because parents don't need to anticipate

xa que os pais non teñen que prever

that their babies are going to die.

que os seus bebés van morrer.

We hope that the Embrace infant warmer

Esperamos que o quentador Aperta

and other simple innovations like this

e outras innovacións parecidas

represent a new trend for the future of technology:

creen tendencia no futuro da tecnoloxía:

simple, localized, affordable solutions

solucións doadas, adaptadas e accesibles

that have the potential to make huge social impact.

que teñan un efecto enorme na sociedade.

In designing this we followed a few basic principles.

Para o deseño seguimos uns principios básicos:

We really tried to understand the end user,

tratamos de entender ao usuario final,

in this case, people like Sevitha.

neste caso, xente como Sevitha,

We tried to understand the root of the problem

tratamos de entender a raíz do problema

rather than being biased by what already exists.

e non condicionarnos polo que xa existe,

And then we thought of the most simple solution we could

e logo pensamos na solución máis sinxela

to address this problem.

para abordar este problema.

In doing this, I believe we can truly bring technology to the masses.

Coido que realmente podemos achegar a tecnoloxía ás masas.

And we can save millions of lives through the simple warmth of an Embrace.

E podemos salvar millóns de vidas grazas á calor dunha Aperta.