Inventing a Portable Urine Drainage System to Help My Grandfather

Introduction: A Grandfather's Struggle

For almost anyone, the prospect of suffering physical limitations as they age can be beyond imagination. My grandfather became bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life after he turned 70, and the news was mortifying. He is unable to walk, eat, or urinate without aid. The fear nearly overwhelms him — the fear of being alone and of falling. Because I did not want my grandfather, or anyone else, to live with such a burden, I set out to find a solution to lessen his agony.

My grandfather developed cerebellar atrophy in his late 60s, which forced him to retire from his successful entrepreneurship. The disease caused him to lose control of his bladder. It pained me deeply to watch my grandfather — a man who had single-handedly supported my entire family — deteriorate from a healthy, energetic individual into a self-conscious and dependent one. I set out with a mission to make his life just a little less troublesome. With help from my whole family, we invented a product called "You R Free To Go" — a portable urine drainage system designed for men.

The Origins of Cerebellum Atrophy and Its Impact

Despite his physical limitations, this invention released him from one of his greatest daily miseries. Patients such as my grandfather have great difficulty controlling their urine, and wearing diapers compounds that difficulty: diapers become extremely heavy and uncomfortable over time. Imagine being a grown adult reduced to wearing diapers. That regression and humiliation alone can cause mental and emotional instability. This portable drainage system is the best solution for patients in his condition.

The idea for my invention originated from a conversation between my mother and me over dinner one evening. I asked my mother — a former nurse — how oxygen masks worked, and suddenly something clicked. The mask that covers the nose and mouth looked remarkably similar to the protective cup my brother wears for baseball. If the mask could function in the same way as a protective cup, then a tube and a drainage bag could be attached to effectively collect urine. I immediately shared the concept with my parents and got to work.

The Spark of an Idea

My father, a cardiovascular surgeon, brought back the necessary supplies from the hospital. The process began by connecting the oxygen mask to a urination drainage bag using a two-centimeter tracheal intubation tube. The tracheal tube is ordinarily used as a breathing conduit designed to sit in a patient's airway to facilitate lung ventilation or drug administration. In this application, however, the breathing components were repurposed entirely for urinary drainage.

What seemed straightforward at first quickly revealed enormous, unforeseen problems. The cup — still a breathing mask at this stage — was too large, causing both leakage and discomfort, and the tube did not connect properly to the mask. The acidic properties of urine also distorted the adhesive used to hold the product together. Once those technical issues were being addressed, I had to consider product satisfaction, comfort, and the design of supportive underwear to keep the entire system stable and prevent loosening. Finally, there remained the challenge of keeping the area dry and reducing odor. Each problem generated its own set of solutions, turning a deceptively simple concept into a far more complex engineering task than anticipated.

Designing and Building the Prototype

According to the National Institutes of Health, urinary incontinence is a widely underdiagnosed condition that significantly affects quality of life, particularly among older adults — underscoring the real-world need for accessible, comfortable management solutions like the one we were developing.