Aug 6 wrote,
Can you get clear heat shrink with the glue inside? If so then the
overlaps would be water tight.

Thanks. I didn't know such a product exists. The cable won't be
submerged. If the shrink is sized properly the overlaps should
be tight. Incursion of contaminant shouldn't be a problem.
Will see how the first repair turns out.

Aug 6 Jeff Liebermann
In my limited experience, if the cord is starting to crumble, it will
continue to crumble. If that's the case with your cord, you may find
that you'll need to replace the entire jacket. I don't think that
hiding the mess under a shrink tube jacket will suffice.

I aim to break off the entire crumbling jacket before enclosing the
wires in the heat shrink. At the ends, two layers of shrink might
be necessary to fill the strain relief. For durability, two layers
can be applied on the entire cord but that will make it stiffer.
Eventually heat shrink will deteriorate but it seems to survive better
than ordinary vinyl jacketing. Pertinent information here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat-shrink_tubing
The local retail electronics shops have only one or possibly two
materials. Nothing like the variety described in Wikipedia.

One nice feature of any of these methods is that the cord will likely
be so ugly, that nobody would consider stealing the instrument from
the hospital.

I've heard of copper plumbing being stolen in Accra. Will ask
friends whether they've ever encountered theft of instrumentation.
FWIIW, most people are honest unless they are starving. A Starbow
airline staff refused a tip after retrieving a forgotten tablet.

Thanks for the feedback. Will try a repair and report the results.

... P.