Brazilian Parents Create a Backpack for a Child Dependent on Electricity 24H a Day to Leave the House
The item includes a respirator, oxygen, and an infusion pump; the idea was adapted and now serves another 50 children in São Paulo
Aline Bertolozzi and Rodrigo Monteiro, both 42, are the parents of Leonardo, 9, an electrically dependent child, meaning he needs to be connected 24 hours a day to devices powered by electricity, which restricted him to the hospital or home care. To enable him to leave the house, the parents created a backpack in 2016 to carry the devices anywhere. After tests and adaptations, in 2023, the Samaritano Higienópolis Hospital, where Léo, as he is known, is treated, donated 50 backpacks, named Outcare, to all pediatric patients with intestinal failure. Additionally, they are conducting a clinical study to determine the impact of using the backpack on the quality of life for both the patients and their families.
Leonardo lost his entire small intestine after a case of enterocolitis — an inflammation that affects the gastrointestinal tract — at one month old, which made him a child with a short bowel and dependent on parenteral nutrition, which is delivered directly into the vein via a central catheter in the heart. Under these conditions, Léo became electrically dependent. Being born premature, he was a child who used a respirator, oxygen, oximeter, infusion pump, and secretion aspirator. Today, he only needs the last two devices. The mother explains that at the time, Léo was discharged for home care, but it felt the same as being in the hospital. "We were stuck at home."
"We had to do something. We took a motorcycle battery with a converter and put the devices inside a backpack. This started giving us the freedom to take outings with Leo," Aline says, who began teaching other parents how to make the backpack online. In 2021, the couple partnered with the advertising agency Havas Life and the Samaritano Higienópolis Hospital, both teams working voluntarily. "We made the first prototype. I used the suitcase for a year; we went abroad, traveled twice in a motorhome across the United States." In December 2023, the Samaritano Hospital donated the backpacks to children in treatment and began the clinical study.