Eighty percent of deaths from severe arterial wounds can be prevented—if you control the bleeding. RevMedX was a medical device startup with a new approach to this tough problem: tiny, expanding sponges, imbued with a powerful coagulant. But administering them accurately, under stressful conditions, was going to be hard. They needed a turnkey design solution for the applicator, and it needed to be fast and foolproof. For soldiers and first responders trying to save someone who's rapidly losing blood, even a few seconds can be the difference between life and death.

Ziba designed, engineered, tested, and produced the new applicator, called XStat, in just 18 weeks from start to finish. While it looks deceptively simple, like a big syringe, it also addressed multiple challenges. It’s durable, it fits in a standard medic’s pocket, and it can be pushed right down to the source of the bleeding without causing additional damage. It’s also fast, able to stop bleeding in less than 20 seconds.

The XStat applicator was such a totally unprecedented device that the FDA had to create a new category for it. But it worked, and it worked well, earning a Popular Science Invention Award, plenty of press coverage for RevMedX, and within months, broad acceptance among EMTs throughout the US. But nothing can compare to the moment when RevMedX called us to report that Xstat had saved four lives during its first week of use.