Sarah Olson would be the first to tell you that she is no medical engineer, but when her 3-year-old son Levi’s
catheter was causing him to scream in pain, she started to search the web for an answer.
“It’s so hard as a mom to see that kind of pain,” Olson told News 6 "(He had) constant contractions to the point where he was passing out from pain minute after minute.”
When she couldn’t find a device to help her son, Olson said she decided to invent one herself.
“I learned how to do CAD (computer-aided) designs for a 3-D printer and found a guy with a 3-D prototype for me," she said.
Olson, who lives in Minnesota with her husband David and their two children, was in Central Florida a few weeks ago to meet with pediatric urologists and give them a sneak peek at the device that she says stopped her son’s pain.
“The problem that I’m trying to overcome, at least in my son, is called bladder spasms," she said.
“I took it to my urologist, and he said, 'Whoa, how is it that someone hasn’t thought of this?'”
Because Olson is still waiting for patents and final designs, she was unable to show News 6 the device.
The prototype fits in the palm of her hand and appears to be made of a red silicone material.
“The majority of the people I’ve been working with are here in Florida," she said. “My goal is to make sure that it’s safe for kids.”
Olson told News 6 that the first phase of clinical trials for the device started on Feb. 21 in Mexico General Hospital. The device is also being introduced to oncology patients.
“We have to get FDA approval. We have to make sure that this is ready for insurance companies," she said. "There’s a long way to go before we get into hospitals, but that is what this team is going to do.”
Her team is a health care services group called Oncotech Inc., based in California.
Dr. Michael Keating, a pediatric urologist at Florida Hospital, met with Olson last month and told News 6 that the device has potential.
“I think she’s done a great job, and I think it will be interesting to see how it plays out," Keating said.
Keating said there are 300 patients under the age of 21 in Central Florida suffering from spina bifida.
“Many of them have balloons on the end of the catheter that (cause) bladder irritability and (amplify) the discomfort that is felt by the child," he told News 6.
“The hope is that we wouldn’t have to use catheters with balloons and keep the catheter off the bladder and not cause as much discomfort.”
Keating said it could take two years or longer for the device to come to market, and it’s possible that the device could be used in other applications.
For more information on Olson’s invention, visit https://www.youcaring.com/lecs-679804.