Dr Sudhir Waghmare, a Founder & Innovator without any Engineering background has been manufacturing world-class new born life saving devices under the name of Shreeyash Electro Medicals in Pune. His life is a saga of courage, valour and inspiration. A cancer survivor, Dr Waghmare is busy saving thousands of lives through his inventions worldwide.
By Chandran Iyer
This innovator is neither a medical doctor nor an engineer and yet he has made life changing inventions that are saving the lives of thousands of people worldwide. His life story is as strange as a fiction.
Meet Dr Sudhir Waghmare a founder & innovator who is into manufacturing new- born life saving devices since the last 31 years under the name of Shreeyash Electro Medicals in Pune. This man hailing from a middle- class family wanted to become an engineer. He managed to get an entry into a good engineering college but was not lucky to get his preferred specialization. Hence, he opted to do his graduation in commerce.
But lack of entry into the portals of engineering college did not deter him as he realized early enough that he had the streak of innovator and entrepreneur in him. “I did not allow my lack of education in medicine or engineering to deflect my focus on creating life saving devices. I was very clear on what I wanted and how to achieve them”, added Dr Sudhir.
This gentleman who did his B.com degree has indigenously developed ventilators & life saving devices that has helped save lives of thousands of newborn babies not only in India but even in other countries including Austria, Australia, Poland, Russia, South Africa and in SAARC countries.
Without any formal degree in the medical field or engineering, he has created medical devices that are saving lives of the people. With extensive research, in 2001, he built a Bubble CPAP, a non-invasive ventilation device for new-born babies with infant respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS0). He is also the inventor of Paediatric and Neonatal ventilator in the year 2004 before going on to build an advanced high-frequency oscillating ventilator for babies in 2006.
In June 2020 Dr Sudhir participated in the Innovate2BeatCovid Grand Challenge initiated by Marico Innovation Foundation, in response to the Covid 19 pandemic for combating the short supply of ventilators to aid the medical fraternity. It was an open challenge to manufacturers across India to produce a state-of-the-art ventilator which could make India
Atmanirbhar. Dr Sudhir participated in this challenge and after a lot of technical and clinical evaluation by eminent expert doctors pan India, his ventilator was chosen as one of the best ventilator in India. For his innovation MIF awarded him a grant to enhance ventilator production.
This Ventilator developed by Dr. Sudhir is at par with any imported make of the Ventilator. Imported ventilator costs around INR 14 to 18 lacs, but Dr. Sudhir’s Ventilator cost 70 % less! It has also features like auto mode in Invasive & Non- Invasive Ventilation which ensures utmost safety of patients. PRVC, BiPAP, HFNC & CPAP with Pressure Support mode with apnea ventilation is a boon for the weaning patients. Clinicians can treat any type of lung disease with this ventilator. It is being used as a regular ICU Ventilator in most hospitals. It operates on Compressed Air & Oxygen supply. It has received many national and international certifications, including one from the Central Drugs Control Organization.
His invention was also appreciated by India’s top hospitals. TATA Hospitals Jamshedpur in their letter of appreciation said “We have been using these ventilators at our hospital. The Built quality of these ventilators are very good. We appreciate the quality of product and customer support rendered to us during the crucial time of COVID 19.
KIMIE
He is also instrumental in developing” Kimie” a fully automatic and portable human milk pasteurizer and got worldwide patent for it. His journey as an entrepreneur began with a small workshop located in his house. Since then, there is no looking back. He has saved lives of thousands of babies worldwide through his inventions. Recognizing his contribution in the medical field, the University of Delaware, USA conferred a honorary degree of PHD for New Born Life Saving Devices.
The Human Milk Pasteurizer, ‘Kimie’ can pasteurize donated human milk from 10 ml to 500 ml & from 100 ml to 3000 ml. This compact machine requires minimal space and costs only Rs. 8 & 12 lacs respectively. This makes setting up of Human Milk Banks easy and affordable for even small Pediatric Hospitals and Healthcare Entrepreneurs. Kimie is a revolutionary innovation that is now accepted all over the globe. The research papers on “kimie” are published in eminent medical journals in India, Sri lanka, France & in USA. This Patented product has generated a lot of interest in hospitals all over the world & now starting a human milk bank has become less cumbersome & economically viable. This will help in saving lives of innumerable new born babies across the globe by feeding them with pasteurized human milk. For this innovation, “Kimie” was also nominated for the prestigious Thomas Edison Award USA, in 2019.
“About 2 million child deaths can be prevented every year through breastfeeding. I was therefore determined to design and develop a world class machine that would be affordable for every hospital in India, so that no child is deprived of the best source of nourishment that is mother’s milk, “said Dr. Sudhir.
His inventions also gave a lease of life to thousands of people when the country faced severe shortage of ventilators during the corona virus pandemic. It was his low cost indigenously developed ventilators which proved to be a boon for the people who were gasping for oxygen in the hospitals.
Dr Sudhir is a cancer survivor. Once during the promotion of his product outside Pune, in 2019 he received a devastating news from his doctor that he was suffering from the cancer of esophagus. There was a large tumor found on his food pipe. He was finding it difficult to sip even a glass of water leave aside eating food.
It began with swallowing problems. Initially it was difficult to swallow hard food, then it aggravated day by day and after few weeks, I was not even able to swallow water. Whatever I swallowed, I used to vomit. There was a great pain in swallowing which was unbearable” he added.
An endoscopy of the esophagus was done which showed a tumor. Further tests revealed that he had Stage 2 squamous cell esophageal cancer. The medical reports were conveyed to him on the phone.
Once diagnosed, most of the doctors suggested him to go for surgery for which he was not in favor. “It’s a very complicated surgery. They explained me a lot about the surgery, its advantages etc, but I was firm on my decision. Instead of surgery, I opted for Chemo therapy, radiation followed by dilatation”. He underwent three chemo therapy of 72 hours, followed by eight chemo therapy of one day, along with 33 radiation therapy. Once the radiation therapy was completed, he had to undergo 2 dilatation procedures. This entire treatment time took around 5 months.
When asked how difficult it was to cope up with this fact of cancer he said “Nothing, I had no mental issues. I remained positive & my wife too played a major role in keeping our kids & my parents positive”, he added.
He said “Only once I was on the verge of breaking. See, I have very silky & thick hairs on my head & I use to love it. One day when I woke up in the morning, I saw lots of my hairs scattered on the bed. When I went to the wash room & touched my hairs, a bunch of it came in my hand. My eyes were filled with tears, but I regathered my thoughts, washed my face & came out smiling & said to my wife that I am going for a haircut. I went to the saloon & instructed the saloon employee to make be Bald. Now there was no question of feeling bad due to hair loss.
He had to through all the ordeal of chemotherapy but he did not allow cancer to rob him of his zest for life and his mission.
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Sudhir is busy saving lives of thousands of new born babies & adult patients through his cost-effective inventions. And today, by the grace of God he is fit and fine.
He says “see, my philosophy was very simple. If I am suffering from cancer, I have to face it, I cannot run away from it. If the things are inevitable, face it with courage & with smiling face. There is no use crying or playing the blame game card of Why me?” During the course of treatment in the hospital, he used to watch movies, songs, various programmes on his laptop.
“I was behaving like a normal & healthy person. During the course of treatment, I used to refuse the urine pot & went to the wash room along with the stand that was equipped with chemo therapy medicines. For this the doctors & staff warned me several times mentioning that the IV catheter can go out, but I refused to listen”, he added.
Being in the medical device industry, he was aware about various ICU equipment & its functioning. During the treatment, he used to interact with the nursing staff & help them in knowing & understanding the technical features of the medical equipment & its clinical advantages like the optimum use of syringe pumps, how to calculate its doses & speed, ICU ventilators, its functioning, its modes of operation etc.
During my Day care treatment, there used to be few more patients besides me who were also admitted for chemotherapy treatment. He used to see them cursing their fortune, crying, shouting in pain & agony, where as I was constantly on my lap top watching something or the other. After certain time, I closed my laptop & started interacting with them & explaining them that this is a just a temporary phase, just remain positive. It had a salutary effect on them. They became relatively calmer and it helped the face the disease and the treatment bravely with hope and a sense of positivity.
He said “During the day care treatment, my wife accompanied me. I used to rush to the admission counter & get the file prepared, would instruct my wife to go to the billing counter & pay the bills. Then I use to reach the ward always 10 minutes before the treatment time & use to inform the nurse to prepare my file & start treatment.”
Sudhir says ‘’ There are times when one walks a chosen path and there are times when destiny choses you to walk a chosen path. Your attitude decides your future. My life has been full of challenges and choices. I always chose fight over flight.
Here is his advice to those who find themselves in similar situation “Never ever give up Hope. There is always a Bright light at the end of the Tunnel.”