A simple COVID-19 ventilator hackable with limited resources and only few off-the-shelf technology components.
I designed and built this simple ventilator when I was worried that one family member could have caught COVID-19 and that there would not be enough resources in hospitals to take care for them.
Fortunately at the end no-one caught COVID-19 at home, but I completed the prototype and a draft design anyways so that the project could be used in situations of extreme lack of resources. For this reason, the project does not involve any cool technology like 3D printing or laser cutting (even though my prototype box IS laser cut - actually the last laser cut at my hackspace before it closed down for COVID).
Only a few off-the shelf technological components are needed, whereas the box and most of the mechanism can be made out of any type of sheet material available (plastic, metal, wood). I am totally aware that some materials are not indicated for a device like this, namely wood, but in emergency cases anything will do.
I am also aware that in situations of extreme lack of resources it might be very difficult to find the few tech components that were used in the project. To this objection:
- the components might be sent from wherever in the world for local assembly. The risk of components being stolen on the way is relatively low due to their low cost. Much lower than the risk of a complete ventilator being stolen if sent from abroad. Plus, the volume of the parts is much smaller than that of a complete machine.
- An even simpler version could be though of, where everything is mechanical AND the mechanical parts can be built locally with low-tech tools. I'm conceptualising this at the moment.
Obviously the design is not "approved" in any sense, nor it pretends to be a "medical device." It is intended to be used as the basis for improvements on the design and to be used under medical control and responsibility in all those cases in which a better designed product would not be available.
A parametric design of the ventilator is shared in the wiki. All the parameters describing it can be changed, including the exact dimensions of the Ambu bag used and the thickness of the sheet material used, which are the critical parameters to design a ventilator that "fits" the bags.
There are many other designs out there, and certainly this is not particularly good in several aspects. I have been debated wether publishing this or not, till this afternoon when I heard a quote by artist Paul Klein who said something along the lines of
"If you made something that has some value you have the moral obligation to share it with the world."
This quote pushed me to act and create this repository, hoping that it will be taken up by other hackers willing to collaborate in developing it further and possibly benefit some patients in the end.