Engineering students Mads Gleitze Smith and Mathias Nørbæk Johansen are repairing an oxygen concentrator at Phaplu District Hospital. Photo: private

Engineering students helping hospitals in Nepal

David Kovacs is the driving force behind Engineering World Health’s initiatives at hospitals in Nepal—and will continue to dedicate huge efforts in the design of medical instruments when he starts on his MSc in Medicine and Technology after the summer holidays.

His interest in and love of Nepal was sparked when he visited the country as a young backpacker. After his return to Denmark, and well underway with his engineering studies, David came into contact with the international charity Engineering World Health (EWH) and went on a trip to Tanzania. EWH—a US organization—organizes short trips for engineers who wish to do relief work and assist hospitals in developing countries with the repair of medical equipment.

“After my trip to Tanzania, I proposed to the CEO of EWH, Dr. Leslie Calman, that the organization should also offer its assistance in Nepal. The Nepalese healthcare system is one of the world’s most challenged systems, and they therefore desperately need a helping hand. I got the go-ahead and then started laying the foundation for an EWH training course, and also went to Nepal to establish a connection to hospitals which had expressed a wish for and needed to collaborate with Engineering World Health,” says David.

A total of nine hospitals from the jungle in the south to the mountains in the western and central part of Nepal have had two or three engineering students staying for a month this summer. During their stay, the students initially focus on getting an overview of the medical equipment available at the hospital—and then, together with the hospital management, they prioritize which equipment should be repaired.

“During their stay, the 20 students repaired a total of 280 life-saving medical devices with a total value of USD 560,000. It’s very important work, which makes it possible for both local doctors and doctors from aid organizations to be able to carry out their work in the field in connection with, for example, earthquakes,” says David.

The life-saving equipment includes everything from advanced anaesthesia equipment and monitoring equipment to surgical lights and blood pressure meters.

Before departing for Nepal, the students complete a three-week course, which the professional Biomedical Engineering group at DTU Electrical Engineering and the Capital Region of Denmark’s Centre for IT, Medical Technology, and Telephony Services have helped to organize. The course teaches the students to recognize different categories of hospital equipment and to disassemble, repair, and reassemble it, which is a very important skill in order to be able to solve the task in Nepal. Equally important is the introduction to Nepalese culture and way of living, which the students get on their arrival in Kathmandu.

“And then the students are ready to go to the nine hospitals. The working conditions are very difficult—much different from those in northern Tanzania. The temperature is usually above 40 degrees in the southern part of the country, and the roads may be impassable for hours due to rain and landslides. Once the students reach the hospital, they have to make do with the very few resources available. You can’t just call for new spare parts, so you have to figure out how to use the equipment available in the best possible way,” says David.

The tools supplier Carl Ras A/S donated equipment worth more than DKK 50,000 to EWH, which the students brought with them from Denmark.

Even though David is now embarking on his MSc, he hopes that he will be able to continue working for EWH—but he may not be able to put as much time into it in future.

“I’m extremely proud of what I’ve created in Nepal and hope that it will be allowed to continue for many years. The participating engineering students can see how their knowledge and work make a huge difference—and all the hospitals are very pleased with our help and ask when we will be coming back again. Some of them have even indicated that they need our help for at least the next 20 years.”