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JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / Stuff
Lui Holder-Pearson, an engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Canterbury, and Professor Geoff Chase, with their switching valve active.
A low-cost Canterbury device could help thousands of people around the world recover from Covid-19.
Researchers at the University of Canterbury have led the creation of a small plastic device that can be attached to a ventilator to allow two patients to breathe from the machine at the same time.
The invention comes as many countries are hit by a resurgence of the virus and are experiencing ventilator shortages for recovering patients.
The researchers say the technology could save “thousands of lives” by increasing fan capacity in these countries.
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The device is called a series timed closed loop active inspiratory valve system (Activ).
It is open access, which means that anyone can access the design and use 3D printers to create copies for themselves.
Each device takes about 20 hours to print with materials that cost around $ 70.
The system was created by a team that included Canterbury University engineering professor Geoff Chase and engineering PhD student Lui Holder-Pearson.
RNZ
New Zealand is one of the few countries with prior agreements to obtain the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, which has just been found to be 90% effective in trials.
They worked with Christchurch Hospital Senior Intensive Care Specialist Dr. Geoff Shaw, as well as engineers and physicians in Belgium and Malaysia.
When the system is connected to a cheap sensor, at a cost of a few dollars, it can detect when patients are exhaling and change the valve to move air to the lungs of the second patient. Then continue alternating between the two.
Currently, medical professionals view two patients breathing with a ventilator as too risky and the method of allowing the patients to breathe in parallel depends on their needing the same amount of air.
Chase said breathing too much or too little could damage patients’ lungs.
“Even if you are breathing the same way at first, in 12 hours one of you will recover faster and everything will change.”
Chase said he was speaking with contacts in Hungary and Belgium about adopting the technology in the near future.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / Stuff
The device can be printed with materials that cost around $ 70.
The investigation was “timely” as Europe and the UK return to varying levels of lockdown.
“We believe this can and will save countless lives internationally by doubling ventilator capacity and preventing clinicians from having to make terrible decisions about end-of-life care.”
Even in New Zealand it could be useful in the event of an outbreak, he said.
The country has only around 250 ventilated intensive care unit beds and some Covid-19 patients must be connected to machines for three weeks or more.
“We really can’t afford any kind of outbreak. It wouldn’t take long to invade this place. “
The findings were published in the leading journal of intensive care medicine. Critical care.
The team tested the device using mechanical lungs and further trials were conducted at Christchurch Hospital.
The project received $ 150,000 in funding from the Covid-19 Innovation Fund of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
