LAUNCH: The Birth of KidO’s Bears

Veteran paramedic John Burch has seen his fair share of close calls, but one close call will always stand out. “It happened several years ago, but it’s still so clear in my mind. A 16-month old child swallowed a toy and it was lodged in his airway. The toy was stuck close enough to his trachea that it was actually whistling when he exhaled.” Burch jumped into action, preparing an oxygen mask for the child. “But when the child saw that oxygen mask, he started screaming, crying, and pushing it away from his face.” All of that excitement caused a spike in the child’s heart rate, and Burch explains that “if that child had been bleeding, an increased heart rate could have been very serious.” Burch walked away from that experience with a lingering thought. “I realized the way we were trying to deliver breathing treatments to kids wasn’t working. When a child is already suffocating, and we try and strap something onto their face, they become very frightened and the natural instinct is to push it away.” So Burch got to work, designing a crude yet kid-friendly breathing device. “I basically carved out a stuffed animal and put an oxygen tube through it.” After a few months of drafting, his finished product was ready, and KidO’s Bears were born. These bears are made out of a latex-free rubber for easy cleaning. They also squeak and smell like bubble gum — and when they’re not delivering oxygen or other nebulizer treatments, they can detach and double as a toy. Even though the product was designed for kids, Burch has discovered an unexpected market for KidO’s Bears. “Geriatric nurses use these when they’re treating patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia because the KidO’s Bears don’t frighten them. But really, it just feels wonderful to know this is helping people. Obviously, when you become a paramedic, your desire is to help people, but it makes it that much better to know you can help them with the least amount of anxiety and trauma.”