From /claims:
- This virus attacks the lungs among many organs, and is much much deadlier than the flu.
- It is a pandemic and a significant portion (50% or more) may get infected in many countries.
- 20% of infected need hospitalization.
- Some percent(?) of the above have or will develop pneumonia.
- Some percent(?) of the above require oxygen ventiliation assistance.
- If the healthcare system gets overloaded, a non-significant portion will not get the help they need.
WARNING: NOTHING HERE IS "SAFE", THE INFORMATION IS ONLY PROVIDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.
"Honestly it would be cheaper more effective and FAR safer to use BIPAP or ASV machines. ASV machines are basically ventilators that do full servo assisted breathing for a patient anyway.
However there are some REALLY complex medical issues here. ASV machines are contraindicated for an patient with a weak heart because assisted breathing without the right fine tuning can cause cardiac issues and make ore-existing issues worse.
Theres a LOT more to this than just maintaining a steady breath in and out like doing rescue breathing. You have to know how to measure the breath depth, how to titrate/vary pressure on the fly, be able to add O2 (most cpaps like bipap and asv have o2 ports), measure CO2 exhalation and build up and get the algorithm right. Finally ASV isnt designed to completely breath for you, rather to assist with weak or halting breathing in situations like central apneas or similar. So they would likely need an upgrade for more severe patients or used only for mild and icu for severe.
The smartest thing in an emergency shortage would probably to grab all the ASV machines you can get IMHO.
A home built machine is ill advised." - @cjunky from https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Pandemic-Ventilator/
- Wikirona Slack - A slack for Wikirona, this project.
- Pandemic Ventilator
See also: Coronavirus Tech Handbook
Chief Anesthesiologist Dr Jostein Brede from St. Olavs Hospital Trondheim, Norway has pointed out:
What we know so far about COVID patients is that they have failure of oxygenation. They have what we call ARDS, and have trouble getting enough oxygen, not necessarily getting CO2 out/in. On our respirators this means they need high PEEP (pressure remaining in the lung after exhalation), longer inspiration time and low pressure (low tidal volume) to avoid additional lung damage. I am not sure how this will work with an iron lung, this is quite fine-tuned respirator-work.
Treating ARDS ARDS are treated with a combination of:
- Low Tidal Volume
- High PEEP
- Prone Position
The high PEEP requirement should rule out the bellow models. High PEEP means that the ventilator needs to provide pressure at the end of exhalation.
- https://hackaday.io/project/170189-pandemic-pressure-control-ventilator
"The Covid-19 pandemic is causing a rising patient demand for respiratory Pressure Control Ventilators (PCVs). The PCV demand already exceeds the supply in some hospitals. The rapidly growing PCV shortage will force more and more hospitals to triage patients who need PCVs. More and more patients will not get them and will die. A severe PCV shortage will cause 100's of thousands of preventable deaths in the USA and Canada and millions of deaths around the world. A good design for an open-source low-cost PCV can be developed quickly by online design teams, inspired by innovative previous ventilator prototypes found around the Web. Resulting PCV designs will be quickly mass-produced by…" - Coronavirus Tech Handbook.
- https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Pandemic-Ventilator/
"The Pandemic Ventilator: Assembly instructions for a DIY Ventilator prototype.This could be useful in an Avian Flu pandemic.Constructed with commonly available components.Many of us modify, hack, re-purpose, and DIY to save money, build something unique, create art,..." pdf link - DMD2010-3845.pdf - Design and Prototyping of a Low-cost Portable Mechanical Ventilator
- HackerNews discussion on DIY ventilators (backup)
- Trevor Smale / Open Source Low Resource Ambu-Bag Ventilator.
- Principles of Mechanical Ventilation - YouTube videos.
- The Intelligent Ventilator Project: Application of Physiological Models in Decision Support - This paper describes progress in a model-based approach to building a decision support system for mechanical ventilation. It highlights that the process of building models promotes generation of ideas and describes three systems resulting from this process, i.e. for assessing pulmonary gas exchange, calculating arterial acid-base status; and optimizing mechanical ventilation. Each system is presented and its current status and impact reviewed.
- UK Ventilation Compliance Guide.