We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meg and Ella Casano a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Meg and Ella, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

When Medi Teddy inventor, Ella, was 7 years old, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called ITP. This meant that her body was destroying it’s own platelets, a cell in the bloodstream that is needed to stop bleeding in the body if an injury should occur. To help keep her safer, Ella had to receive an intravenous (I.V.) infusion every 6-8 weeks. Lots of efforts were made to distract and comfort her when her IV was being placed, but after that she had to sit in a room for about 6 hours surrounded by medical equipment. We adults never realized it, but the big bags of medicine hanging over her head and all of the medical equipment surrounding her made Ella feel very uneasy and scared. So, she came up with the idea to hide the sight of the bags of blood and medicine hanging around her. She made Medi Teddy, a smiling bear which could hide her medicine and help to normalize the medical equipment around her. Each Medi Teddy has a fully open rear so doctors and nurses can still easily monitor the medicine. From the face, the patient sees a gently smiling bear, and 95% of users report improved emotional well being during infusions while using a Medi Teddy.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

Medi Teddy started as a school project. In 5th grade, Ella and the other students in her grade each had to come up with an invention and present it to the school. Ella’s idea had fully taken shape by now and she made her first prototype of Medi Teddy by cutting up a stuffed animal and using a hot glue gun to affix a mesh pouch to the rear. She could slip her IV bags into the pouch and didn’t have to look at them anymore! Problem solved! Ella received such incredible support, feedback, and encouragement from her teachers and classmates that she wanted to continue working on her project.
So, in 6th grade, as part of the Gifted Program for her school. She chose to do an independent study. Her work would span three years (6th – 8th grade) and would include applying for patents, modifying her design, finding a manufacturer, raising money, and eventually becoming I.V. Comfort Solutions LLC which sells Medi Teddy IV covers, and it’s sister charity, Medi Teddy Inc 501(c)Non Profit which gives away Medi Teddys to hospitals and children through direct donations. So far more than 10,000 Medi Teddys have been given or so in all 50 states, in 23 countries, and 5 continents!

Having ITP made it impossible for Ella to participate in most sports, and many events that her classmates could do, because it wasn’t safe for her. She missed a lot of school for treatments, infusions, and doctor visits and has endured hundreds of blood draws and dozens of IV infusions over the span of 8 years. She often encourages kids not to get discouraged and to take action on their ideas, even if things seem impossible!

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process./

We had no idea how to manufacture something and felt stuck at this point. We called on a local businessman and philanthropist for help. Al DiGuido owns the local ice cream shop and Ella pitched her idea for him right there at the counter. He was encouraging, but serious. He told Ella she should continue working on her idea, and he said she needed to find out how much it would cost to make one item. He said if she could do that, and find out how much her first minimum order would be, the next step would be to raise money. He said if she could not raise enough money, he would help her cross the finish line. It was so immensely helpful to have that support and know we had a safety net if we fell short.

The next thing we did was email toy companies around the country to ask if they could help bring Ella’s ideas to life. Only one person got back to us. Thankfully it’s been a great relationship so far and that is who we continue to work with to this day! The toy company acts as our importer and handles all of the dealings with the factory – including turning Ella’s ideas into computer files, making the molds, prototypes, regulations, safety, certifications, and testing.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

We started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money. We were trying to raise $5,000.00 to start. We shared the link to our local mom’s group and it got shared several times from there. GoFundMe must have noticed the link and emailed us to ask if they could promote Ella’s fundraiser in their press section. We said sure and the rest is history….the post went viral, media outlets started emailing, and Ella raised over $20,000!! We do recognize that there was a significant bit of luck in what happened at this point. But we also believe it speaks to the importance of having a good product that is meaningful to your story and that will help to move hearts and generate support.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ivcomfortsolutions.com
• Instagram: @medi_teddy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meg-casano-bsn-ma-278108191/
• Twitter: @teddy_medi
• Other: our 501(c)3 www.medi-teddy.org (you can also get there by clicking on “Philanthropy” from the IV Comfort Website)

Image Credits
KER Photography, Kristy Kistner Photography