On a normal day at Tanglewood Elementary School in Derby, school nurse Lisa Schroeder spends her time helping kids with upset tummies and other minor ailments.
And at some point, there’s a good chance she’ll encounter a student with a bloody nose.
“A friend accidentally, you know, bumped me, or I fell, or I hit myself with my Chromebook,” she said.
Schools are just one of the settings where Wichita entrepreneur Merrie East envisions her product, the NozePax, being used to stop nosebleeds.
She started hand-making and selling them herself online in 2018. But she’s had at least an inkling of the idea since the late 1980s, when her son suffered frequent nosebleeds at daycare.
At the time, she said people were developing a heightened awareness of AIDS and of coming into contact with blood.
“People were genuinely scared of blood. I mean, they did not want to touch it,” East said. “It was a scary ordeal back then.”
Messiness and avoiding contact with blood are two of the issues East hopes to address with the NozePax.
The device is sort of shaped like a bullet, with a rounded cotton tip that fits snugly against the inside of the nose. As the cotton absorbs the blood, a rubber finish at the base helps keep it all contained.
East sees the product as a response to nosebleeds caused by injuries, as well as recurrent ones.
“I see these everywhere Band-Aids are because — in a first aid kit — there's not anything out there for nosebleeds,” she said.
East said she has already gotten a patent and U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the NozePax. With the help of a grant, East also recently had a machine developed by Kansas State University researchers to mass-produce the device.
For now, she’s still making and selling them out of her home. She’s managed to build some loyal individual customers, and she even sells to some school districts — like one in Tulsa.
“They’re a lifesaver for them because their protocol at the school district is to pinch their nose,” she said. “And trying to pinch a nose on a little kid for 10 minutes can be wearing.”
If you’ve ever had a nosebleed and you don’t have a NozePax on hand, there are a few quick steps you can take to get it under control.
Dr. Keith Sale is an otolaryngologist for the University of Kansas Health System.
He said you should simply pinch your nostrils closed at the soft cartilage — almost like you’re about to jump in the pool — and hold it for 10 minutes. Keep your head forward; there’s no need to tilt it back.
And if that doesn’t work, sometimes a nasal decongestant spray can stop the bleeding.
“And I would say 99% of the time that's going to, those two things together, … stop the nosebleed,” Sale said.
So, what’s next for NozePax? East said she’s working with an intellectual property lawyer to commercialize the product.
She said she plans to pitch it to major manufacturers, which could help her sell it on store shelves.
“And mark my word, on TV, when you see people with a nosebleed and they cram toilet tissue [sic] up there … these will be in the movies,” she said with a laugh. “I just know it.”
