18-year-old builds $130 system to detect bedsores

At an age when most teenagers might have their minds on crushes, fashion or the latest album releases, Shreveport resident Maya Trutschl was thinking about a problem in hospital ICUs: how to stop bedsores before they appear.In the ICU, patients lie motionless for hours. Their skin may show no signs of damage. But beneath the surface, tissue is already breaking down. By the time a nurse notices the wound, the invisible injury has already begun. The 18-year-old decided to fix this. And she did! The teenager has just won a $25,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship for engineering a system that detects pressure injuries before they become visible.“I am profoundly honoured to be recognised as a Davidson Fellow and to become part of such an inspiring community of curious, dedicated young people,” Maya Trutschl said in a statement. “This achievement motivates me to continue pursuing research, and I hope it encourages other students to chase even the smallest questions that fascinate them.”The silent injury nobody talks aboutBedsores may not sound like a pressing problem, but pressure injuries contribute to an estimated 60,000 deaths in the US each year. This toll is more than the lives most ca...