Healthcare professionals are hailing the story of a germ-zapping robot that went to the home of an Austin, Texas, infant to help disinfect his residence and make it germ free.
The machine was deployed in 8-month-old Caleb Zadic’s Austin home to help ease the minds of his parents and prevent the child from contracting dangerous infections. The boy has spent most of his young life in hospital intensive care units due to a congenital heart defect.
“It’s hard to see your child with tubes coming out of every which way,” said Caleb’s mother, Daria. “It takes 20 minutes and a few people to get him into your arms, because he’s just so sick. If it were up to me I would never see him like that again.”
Fairly new technology, the germ-killing robot is named Eden and is operated by Xenex Disinfection Services based in San Antonio, Texas. The machine uses UV light technology to kill 99 percent of germs that can live for up to five months on hard surfaces.
“The light kills the germs and viruses in the room–spores, molds,” Xenex Technical Director Rachael Sparks said. “It breaks down the DNA of these organisms, so they cannot replicate, and they die.”
Hospitals all across the nation have begun to use the Eden robot. Some have reported that infection rates have dropped by fifty percent.
One recent hospital that purchased the Eden system is Mercy Hospital of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“The automated Xenex room disinfection system has been credited for helping other healthcare facilities in the U.S. decrease their MRSA and C. diff infection rates by more than 50 percent, according to studies,” Kent Miller, director of Environmental Services, said in July of 2014.
Last year, some even touted the Xenex disinfecting robots as an efficient way to help kill Ebola. “We’ve definitely had an increase in interest in our technology. Ebola has generated a lot of interest in the threat of infectious disease–and what can be done to stop the spread of deadly infections,” Xenex spokeswoman Melinda Hart said last October.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.