Whatever Happened To ... The Car Mechanic Who Invented A Device To Pop Out A Baby?
Jorge Odón, inventor of the Odón Device — described in a past NPR story as a tool for "popping a baby out like a cork."
Pearl Mak/NPR
Back in 2006, Jorge Odon was a 52-year-old mechanic who ran an automobile alignment and wheel balancing service center in Lanus, Argentina, a city just south of Buenos Aires. On the side, he liked to tinker around with car-related inventions in his garage. One day, very different inspiration struck after watching two employees compete to get a loose cork out of the bottom of a wine bottle using a technique they'd seen on YouTube.
It's just a few steps: Insert the closed end of a plastic bag into a bottle, tilt the bottle until the cork is touching the bag and blow into the open end of the bag. The bag will inflate like a balloon and envelop the cork. Then give the plastic bag a hard tug. The bag and the cork should come out together. And this random idea popped into Odon's head: He wondered, could you use a similar method to help women having complications in labor? A bag could wrap around the baby's head, and voila, out comes the kid.
“Many inventions get to the prototype stage, but that’s maybe 15 percent of what needs to be done,” Mr. Cohen said. “There’s finalizing the design for manufacture, quality control, the regulatory work and clinical studies. Absent that, they don’t see the light of day.”
So far, the device has been safety-tested only on 30 Argentine women, all of whom were in hospitals, had given birth before and were in normal labor.
The W.H.O. will now oversee tests on 100 more women in normal labor in
Odon device for instrumental vaginal deliveries: results of a medical device pilot clinical study
Feasibility and safety study of a new device (Odón device) for assisted vaginal deliveries: study protocol
Odon device for instrumental vaginal deliveries: results of a medical device pilot clinical study.
RESULTS:
Of the 49 women enrolled, the Odon device was inserted successfully in 46 (93%), and successful Odon device delivery as defined above was achieved in 35 (71%) women. Vaginal, first and second degree perineal tears occurred in 29 (59%) women. Four women had cervical tears. No third or fourth degree perineal tears were observed. All neonates were born alive and vigorous. No adverse maternal or infant outcomes were observed at 6-weeks follow-up for all dyads, and at 1 year for the first 30 dyads.
CONCLUSIONS:
Delivery using the Odon device is feasible. Observed genital tears could be due to the device or the process of delivery and assessment bias. Evaluating the effectiveness and safety of the further developed prototype of the BD Odon Device™ will require a randomized-controlled trial.
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