An Indian-American couple developed a low cost portable ventilator to help the COVID-19 victims. The emergency ventilator will be an usable product in healthcare centers.
To an extent, emergency ventilators are life saving equipment for COVID-19 victims. When a person is affected with coronavirus, it reduces the ability of lung functioning. Inhaling and exhaling becomes difficult and this may cause death. A ventilator helps the patient to breathe better as a replacement for weak lungs.
There is a shortage of ventilators to treat the coronavirus affected patients. The professor and associate chair in Georgia Tech’s George W Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and his wife Kumuda Ranjan, a practising family physician in Atlanta made it possible in developing the emergency ventilator.
The couple developed the ventilator from concept to prototype within three weeks time.
Professor Ranjan told PTI said “If you can do a manufacturing of scale, it can be produced (item cost) in less than USD 100. Even with a price point of USD 500, they (the manufacturer) would have enough money to make sure that they are making enough profit in the market.”
Mr.Ranjan Said, the ventilator that they developed costs $10000. However, he mentioned that this is not an ICU ventilator which is more sophisticated and costs high.
D.r Kumuda told PTI said “The whole goal of this project was to make a low cost makeshift ventilator that gives those controls to the physician”.
Both Ranjan and Kamuda gave their view saying, India has the potential to export the emergency ventilators globally with low cost.
Mr.Ranjan also added, “The impact of this could be significant if other parts of the world are hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Having equipment that can be made quickly where it is needed and with the kind of control system doctors need could really help address the worldwide impact of this virus”.
