Epileptic grid electricity and frequent power blackouts in the night at LMIC neonatal centres hide
behind frontline morbidities but contribute significantly to poor treatment outcomes at these
centres. Power blackouts make it hard for clinicians and nurses to see clearly when attending to
patients in the dark. Hence, many patients have lost their lives during the mistake-prone poor visual
setting. This situation gets worse for centres located at more remote regions of LMICs, where power
outages could last for many days. A recently published article on “neonatal-rescue-scheme” concept
proposed the reversal in neonatal traffic, by taking the interventions to rural places where more
needy neonates are to save them. Therefore, it becomes imperative to develop a reliable system of
independent and sustainable technology that can guarantee dusk-to-dawn facility lighting based on
solar energy at such remote location that may not have grid electricity.
This was achieved by technology morphing of existing market products, recreating these to fit the
LMICs’ peculiar environmental and cultural settings. The resulting construct, polite-light-bank (PLB),
passed all rigorous testing of structural integrity under the weather and functionality stability under
strenuous usage. For over a period of four years, the new construct provided over 95% reliability and
nearly 100% satisfaction ratings from the initial five centres that used it and have continued to use
this to date. This is a golden piece of work that any LMIC or similar settings must not ignore.