In 2014, Professor Eugene Zoumenou approached Lifebox requesting support in making anesthesia safer for patients in Benin. In the years since, we have worked in partnership with Benin’s anesthesia society – Societé d’Anesthesie-Reanimation du Benin – to equip the anesthesia workforce with 361 pulse oximeters – a medical device essential for safe surgery – alongside training in their use.
Professor Zoumenous tells us that today, no operation takes place in Benin without a pulse oximeter, and this is thanks to Lifebox.
The World Health Organization recognizes patient safety as a global health priority, but there is still a crisis in unsafe surgery. Critical gaps in the quality of surgical care leads to millions of preventable deaths, each year, in low-resource settings.1
Lifebox is the only nonprofit solely dedicated to improving anesthesia and surgical safety. Whether it’s the distribution of 32,000 pulse oximeters worldwide, supplying 335,000 items of Personal Protective Equipment during COVID-19, or slashing rates of surgical infection by 35%, we are working to address the gaps in safe care for all surgical patients.
On this year’s World Patient Safety Day (17 September) we wish to thank our global network of supporters, partners, and donors for helping Lifebox to make surgery and anesthesia safer for every patient, every time.
Thank you,
Lifebox Team
1 Nepogodiev D, Martin J, Biccard B, Makupe A, Bhangu A, Ademuyiwa A, et al. Global burden of postoperative death. Vol. 393, The Lancet. Lancet Publishing Group; 2019. p. 401.