There's a possibility the spread of COVID-19 leads to a lot of people needing help to breathe and not enough equipment.<p>Is anyone working on easy-to-build DIY versions?<p>What are the requirements?<p>- Made of ubiquitous simple components<p>- Provides "clean" air<p>- What flow rate?<p>- What cadence?<p>- What feedback mechanisms? Can it (or an operator) close the loop with cheap fingertip O2 sensors?<p>What's the starting point - designs from the 1800s/1900s?
Lot of stuff that can go wrong with ventilator patients:<p>- Blood pressure from intrathoracic pressure caused by ventilation.
- Sedation and pain from ventilation
- Obstruction of airway
- Removal of airway secretions
- Arterial Blood Gas checks (Blood Ph, Oxygenation, CO2 levels)
- Secondary infection due to ventilation<p><a href="https://www.nursingcenter.com/clinical-resources/nursing-pocket-cards/caring-for-the-mechanically-ventilated-patient" rel="nofollow">https://www.nursingcenter.com/clinical-resources/nursing-poc...</a>
Stealing a comment I saw the other day in a thread where a open source ventilator was shown, if you need a ventilator you'd need intensive care as well.
I wonder if CPAP/BiPAP machines can be software hacked into ventilators. Some BiPAP models are almost identical to those labeled as "ventilators."