ResQ̇V̇enT Covid-19 ventilators

By: Prof Ross Hofmeyr, Dr Matthew Young, Craig Burden, Brent Russel, Wesley New, Jon Kornik, Carl Kritzinger & Susan Spangenberg

Prof Ross Hofmeyr, Dr Matthew Young, Craig Burden, Brent Russel, Wesley New, Jon Kornik, Carl Kritzinger & Susan Spangenberg Short URL: https://www.backabuddy.co.za/rescuevent

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We are a team of engineers (mechanical, electrical and mechatronic) and clinical anaesthetists with formal training in critical care from the University of Cape Town’s Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine based at Groote Schuur Hospital, who are looking into the feasibility of locally designing and producing ventilators as part of a coordinated effort to increase capacity across South Africa.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic has placed a severe burden on most health care systems, resulting in critical shortages of medical consumables and equipment.

Ventilators have been identified as one of the critical medical items that are in short supply globally.

ResQ̇V̇enT plans to supplement this lack of ventilators with low cost and easily manufactured ventilator systems that can be easily connected up to existing hospital infrastructure.

The ResQ̇V̇enT will ventilate people with severe COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) during this global pandemic once our ICUs have used all their ventilators.

The ResQ̇V̇enT is designed to be used with the ubiquitous bag-valve respirators which are commonly found in all medical settings.

The ventilation of critically ill patients, particularly those with ARDS, is a delicate procedure as the primary pathology is in the lungs. Our concern is that many simple rudimentary ventilators that have recently been designed and built around the globe, do not have closed feedback loops and therefore can easily cause more harm than good to those who need it most.

The ResQ̇V̇enT:

-Can ventilate patients with a variety of advanced ventilator settings (VC / PC SIMV)

-Has real time graphical display of pressures and volumes

-Has electronically controlled motors, with the ability for fine adjustment



A prototype has already been built but more hardware and sensors are needed before we can start trials and the certification process.

Once certified we would like to start production to meet the growing demand for ventilators in South and Southern Africa.

Update:

We have been blown away by the support that so many people have helped us in reaching our initial goal. We have decided to raise the asking amount. With the additional funding, we will be able to make more prototypes so that each engineer can work with one for extensive testing as well as being able to demonstrate what the ResQ̇V̇enT can do. This will hopefully grant us the opportunity get the ResQ̇V̇enT to needing patients as soon as possible.

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