Lifebox Foundation

For millions of people in developing countries, there’s no such thing as a ‘routine operation’. Surgery is urgent, life-saving – but often unsafe.

At Lifebox, we are dedicated to improving the safety of surgery and anaesthesia around the world. We provide surgical teams in low-resource countries with the tools and training they need to deliver safer care to their patients.  As our Co-founder and Chair Dr Atul Gawande said, “By doing these simple things, we’re safeguarding individual patients one by one”.

The pulse oximeter is the heartbeat of the operating theatre, making sure that a patient’s blood oxygen does not drop to a critical level.  It’s the most important piece of monitoring equipment required for safe anaesthesia.

Healthcare workers around the world are working in conditions blighted by war, poverty and a shortage of resources.

Lifebox is distributing oximeters to surgical teams who cannot afford an oximeter, and provides training so that they can use the oximeter effectively.