P Suits lets a person with altitude sickness get treatment while walking down the mountain on their own feet, instead of lying sealed inside a chamber. We design and build it in India for defence personnel and mountaineers.
Pressure Suits for Peak Lives
Concept render of the P Suit in use at high altitude.
High in the mountains the air pressure drops, and every breath carries less oxygen. Soldiers at high-altitude posts and climbers at base camps can develop acute mountain sickness. Left untreated, it can turn into fluid on the lungs or swelling of the brain, both of which can kill.
The surest treatment is to get the person down to lower altitude. In bad weather, at night or on rough terrain, that is often slow or impossible.
The P Suit seals around the body and is inflated so the pressure inside is higher than the thin air outside. Inside the suit, the body feels conditions closer to a lower altitude, which eases the symptoms. Because the suit is worn instead of lain in, the patient can keep moving and walk down to safety at their own pace.
The patient is not stuck in one place. Treatment and descent happen at the same time, without a team carrying a stretcher or a chamber.
Materials, seals and fittings are chosen for sub-zero conditions at high-altitude posts and base camps.
We handle every step in-house, from design and pattern cutting to stitching and assembly, so the product does not depend on imports.
A short news feature on how the team is building the suit, from the first design to a prototype someone can walk in. The video is in Hindi.
Soldiers posted at high-altitude stations along the Himalayan frontier, where evacuation depends on weather and terrain. A suit that a soldier can wear while walking to a lower post or a medical point gives units a first response they can carry with them.
Climbers, trekkers and expedition teams at base camps, and the guides and rescue teams who look after them. The suit gives a group a way to start treatment immediately and keep descending, instead of waiting for help to arrive.
Atmanirbhar by Design. We are building a fully self-reliant product, so that the people protecting India's mountain borders do not have to depend on equipment from other countries.
P Suits is incubated at the IIT Hyderabad Technology Incubation Center, the technology business incubator at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad.
Whether you fund, test, deploy or partner on high-altitude care, we would like to hear from you.
