‘It worked beautifully.’ Northwell Health converts BiPAP machines into ventilators

As the number of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 increases, so does the need for lifesaving ventilators. As the supply of those ventilators diminishes, medical experts at Northwell Health on Long Island have come up with a solution.

Dr. Hugh Cassiere says a repurposed bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) machine could help when a surge of cases come and supplies begin to run out. He says he was able to test the BiPAP machine on a COVID-19 patient, and it was successful.

“We hooked the machine up to the patient who had very, very sick lungs and we did that for six hours and it worked beautifully,” says Dr. Cassiere. “It was able to achieve everything we wanted to even with a patient with the COVID-19 lung disease."

BiPAP machines are common in hospitals, according to the doctor. He says it only needs a small part that can be 3D-printed.

Northwell Health says it has 315 BiPAP machines and is printing the adapters to make them work.

The state was so impressed with the result that it ordered 7,000 of the machines.

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