Son makes innovative bed for his bed-ridden father’s daily needs

For months, 47-year-old Dileep Kumar, a Non Resident Keralite (NRK) based in Australia has been thinking of ways to help his aged mother who has been struggling to take care of his bed-ridden father at their home town Alappuzha in Kerala.

Dileep Kumar, a medical laboratory scientist, was in a dilemma as his mother never agreed to employ a home nurse and she wanted to take care of the father all by herself. Dileep Kumar had to fly to Kerala from Australia several times in the last one year as his 78-year-old father Radhakrishna Pillai’s health deteriorated after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Dileep Kumar realised that his mother Sudhamani Amma, 73, was struggling to take the bed-ridden father to bathroom on a wheelchair frequently to clean and wash him.

Though his mother never complained about her hardships, Dileep Kumar decided to find a solution to help his mother. As his father has no control over his bladder and bowel movements, the mother has to wash him up frequently to ensure that he doesn’t get any infection and body sores.

“I was forced to come up with a solution to help my mother. I gave it a lot of thinking and finally decided to make a bed. The idea was to make a bed so that the patient can pass urine and stool without getting up and also a by-stander can wash and clean the patient without shifting the person to a bathroom,” Dileep Kumar told “Open Digest”.

Despite having no engineering background, Dileep Kumar started working on the sketch of the model from July 2022. Dileep Kumar visited many places to get a first hand knowledge on the different types of patient care beds available in the market.

“I brought a hospital bed to my house garage and worked on it to learn the different mechanisms and features of a hospital bed. Later, I started sourcing materials from different places to make a model. I was lucky to have my house manager Sadasivan Krishnankutty, who helped me when I explained my idea. We started working together on my idea with the materials available,” Dileep Kumar said.

“After months of hard work,I finally made a bed which has the features to enable a physically disabled patient to have a comfortable sleep on it and if in need, can carry out primary needs on it. The bed also has the feature to wash, clean and dry the patient without moving the patient off the bed and that too at the press of a switch ” Dileep Kumar said, adding that ever since he built the bed it has been a big relief to his mother.

“I wanted to give as much comfort for my dad when he is on the bed which causes no discomfort to him. We stopped using diapers and removed urine catheter as he can pass urine and stool in the lying position. He can be washed and cleaned on the bed itself by pressing a button. After started using this bed, my dad’s ongoing urinary tract infection got cured. I thank Sadasivan and others who helped me in making such an innovative bed for my father,” Dileep Kumar added. He has also applied for a patent for the bed.