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A hack used by a physician during the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting could become a game-changer in the battle against COVID-19 as a looming shortage of ventilators threatens.

An Eastern Ontario anesthetist has tested the modification, which could double or quadruple the capacity of scarce ventilators during a growing COVID-19 pandemic.

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It could also prevent a worst-case scenario in which older or sicker patients could be left to die because the capacity of the system becomes overwhelmed by COVID-19.

With the relatively simple adaptation — running two hoses from one ventilator — ventilators that are designed to act as mechanical breathing devices for a single person can be doubled or quadrupled so that more than one person at a time can be hooked up.

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The hack, done by Dr. Alain Gauthier of Perth, is not perfect, he warns. But it has the potential to save lives as Ontario begins to see more severe COVID-19 cases. And that could prevent the kind of worst-case scenario seen in Italy in which doctors were forced to decide who would get a ventilator and who would die.