Moved by a Patient’s Pain, This 27-YO Engineer Created a Wheelchair With a Toilet That Brings Back Dignity

When Sruthi Babu, a 27-year-old biomedical engineer, saw an elderly paralysed man in a hospital whisper, “It is better to die than live like this,” something shifted in her.

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“He was with his daughters and wanted to use the toilet. After defecating, he needed someone to clean him, and the two daughters looked at each other. The guilt and embarrassment in the father’s eyes said everything,” Sruthi recalls to The Better India.

That painful moment became the spark behind Sahayatha — the world’s first wheelchair with a built-in water-cleaning toilet system.

An idea born of empathy

During her fellowship in medical innovation in Odisha, Sruthi began to wonder: What if mobility could also mean dignity?

Working from a small unit in Coimbatore, she and her father, K K Babu, a mechanical engineer, began experimenting.

“My father worked tirelessly with me to make this product happen,” she says. “We went through 118 iterations before landing on the final design.”

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A wheelchair that restores independence

The result was Sahayatha — a simple yet revolutionary device. It comes with a small water tank, a jet spray, and a removable waste container, allowing users to clean themselves easily and privately.

“The cleaning system uses an old Japanese technique called the bidet system,” Sruthi explains. “It’s quite common, but not in wheelchairs. The faecal matter is collected in a cup-shaped container that can be removed from the back without disturbing the patient.”

The wheelchair also converts into a stretcher, reducing the need for multiple transfers and caretakers.

“With this, the number of caretakers needed reduces from three to one,” she says. “More importantly, users gain back confidence and independence.”

Today, Sahayatha is patented in over 140 countries and has already helped more than 300 people live with greater comfort and self-respect.

From hospital corridors to homes, this invention is doing more than improving accessibility — it’s restoring dignity.

“People think someone with a mobility issue only needs a wheelchair,” Sruthi says. “But they also need help with the most basic things. With Sahayatha, we are trying to give them that freedom back.”

Sruthi’s mission is simple: mobility should never come at the cost of dignity.

Through empathy, engineering, and persistence, she’s proving that innovation is not just about invention — sometimes it’s also about humanity.