We are super excited to announce we now offer the Kili Medical Drain Carrier for purchase at our office to help manage your post-operative breast reconstruction drains.
Cinde Dolphin is a 4-time cancer survivor who created a device to make patients like her more comfortable after surgery. Like many post-operative cancer patients, she required medical drains within her surgical sites to allow fluid to be extracted after surgery. These drains are thin plastic tubing with a bulb to collect the fluid attached to the end. That fluid must be measured, and the bulb emptied frequently to avoid fluid buildup. They can be uncomfortable, difficult to hide under post operative clothing and a nuisance for the weeks that they must be worn. Cinde headed to the dollar store and constructed a mesh bag from items she found there and created her own prototype of a medical drain carrier. Since that time, she has marketed the discrete, inexpensive pouch to medical facilities across the country with remarkable success and positive patient feedback. This is our favorite part - Why the name Kili? The name honors women from a village at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, who call the mountain by the abbreviation “Kili” and whose husbands work as porters for the climbers. How are these women connected to Cinde, a woman worlds away? — by none other than her medical drain carrier. Cinde, who was working with them, showed them the product, and they offered to weave a version of it with their homespun threads and treadle sewing machines. These handwoven carriers became in such high demand for various uses around the village and beyond, that the women were able to make a small business out of them. The resulting revenue, along with the support Cinde provides from her business, allows the women to send their daughters to school, potentially changing the very trajectories of their lives. Learn more about her mission and where you can buy outside of our office at https://medicaldraincarrier.com/
