BOSTON -- It's a staggering statistic.

Some 4 million children, many with treatable diseases, die every year before they are a month old. Many of those children were born in developing countries.

A group of doctors and engineers in Boston has dedicated themselves to designing inexpensive medical devices that could save some of those millions of lives.

At first glance, an incubator looks like a junkyard sculpture, but it's actually a life-saving medical device.

"It's an incubator used for the developing worlds, and it doesn't look like it because it's all made out of car parts," said Kristian Olson, director of the Global Health Initiative Center.

The heat source is a pair of headlights. An auto filter keeps the newborn in a sterile environment. Seat belts keep the baby secure.

"You can open up the entire top, and it serves like a radiant warmer," said Olson.

Many developing countries are given equipment like incubators through donations. But when they break, they're thrown away because no one can repair them.

"The thought of our team was that if we use parts that are locally available and that are able to be fixed by local service people, they could keep this equipment running," said Olson. A motorcycle battery powers the incubator.

"One thing we learned is that oftentimes in developing world hospitals, power is available, but maybe for four hours a day," said Olson.

Olson, a doctor at Mass. General travels the world, specializing in neo-natal care in Third World countries. The incubator is just one design by a consortium of Boston teaching hospitals and engineering schools.

About a million babies die every year in the first minute of life. It's called birth asphyxia. This simple plastic valve can stimulate breathing in difficult birthing environments, often at home.

"You put it over the nose and mouth of the baby and give it a breath," said Olson.

Olson said training midwives is essential. What's most rewarding, he said, is seeing them so empowered: life savers with the right stuff.

"I remember driving down the road to meet this baby," he said. "This midwife took us in, held up her tube with the baby and said, 'This baby was as blue as my shirt is. Now he's healthy.'" The devices have been used in Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Nepal.

The hope is to develop more user-friendly and inexpensive medical devices for other impoverished countries. But marketing is challenging since the countries who need these devices are so poor.