EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Physicians in Italy are being forced to make impossible choices regarding who to save, and who to let go of, largely due to a shortage of hospital ventilators.
According to recent news reports, only patients under the age of 60 years-old will now receive ventilator assistance.
Nearly 25% of Italy’s population is over the age of 65, and without ventilator support, those who are critically ill may be reduced to gasping for breath, a savage way to exit the world.
Around the globe, hundreds of thousands of well-meaning, intelligent, diligent and resourceful engineers are coming together to help solve the ventilator crisis.
Several open source ventilator projects are underway, and ready for volunteers.
- This Low-Cost Open Source Ventilator is buildable, pressure tested, and the project is currently active.
- The Rice OEDK Design: ApolloBVM, is buildable based on the write-up, and it has been pressure tested, but it is not active.
- This Open Source Ventilator — OpenLung BVM Ventilator is a tightly organized, active, entirely open project, but at the present moment, is not buildable.
- This (Protofy Team OxyGEN) project is buildable, and active, although it has not yet been pressure tested.
While this type of grassroots, DIY thinking and building represents a “last resort” type of response, we’re there.
For more information on how to get involved, visit Hacker Noon.
