South African Emergency Ventilator Project still has options

A group of South African businesspeople, doctors and engineers who hope to address the critical shortage of ventilators in the country still have several avenues to investigate.

Recently we reported that a UK manufacturer, Penfold, were unable to dig out their technical drawings for a collective called the South African Emergency Ventilator Project. Penfold said at the time that given their efforts to ramp up production on the ventilators they currently produce and market, they would be unable to assist the group.

The programme, led by South African businessman Justin Corbett hoped to reverse engineer an old model of ventilator which could be recreated with relative ease but met with frustration in their discussions with the UK firm.

South Africa are in a very long and increasingly desperate queue for new machines currently being manufactured in Europe.

Hospitals in South Africa are estimated to have somewhere in the region of 6,000 ventilators available, but two-thirds of those are found in private facilities.

Soviet technology an option for ventilator project

A few options have emerged as alternatives, though. One of them comes from the Ukraine where Soviet-era plans for ventilators have been made available to the wider public.

Deputy Director-General of Ukroboronprom, Mustafa Nayyem, revealed that despite plans for the machines going missing, the firm managed to track down an old employee who knew where the designs were kept in the factory.

Nayyem conceded that the company themselves were not able to restart production to fulfil Ukraine’s needs but agreed to turn the plans over to any parties interested in producing the machines. 

“We will give everyone access to this documentation because we understand that the crisis is now,” Nayyem told Reuters.

“If you ask me whether there is a wizard who can come in and do everything, I would like to believe in it, but I think that now we need to … accept that industry in this country has been allowed to die for decades.”

Ventilator plans made available

 British technology firm Smiths Group have also said they will make one of their ventilators available for other manufacturers to produce in the global crisis brought on by COVID-19.

“We are doing everything possible to substantially increase production of our ventilators at our Luton site and worldwide,” its chief executive, Andrew Reynolds Smith, said.

Another option available to the Emergency Ventilator Project is a promising idea being put forward in the USA, which could have one of the most significant shortfalls when it comes to the life-saving breathing apparatus.

Ambu-bags hold promise if they can be automated

The idea is to convert the abundant manual breathing aids ‘ambu-bags’ into automated devices. Usually, the ambu-bag is operated by a paramedic or nurse to temporarily aid a patient in breathing.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are eager to investigate whether it is possible to safely ventilate a COVID-19 patient by automatically actuating a manual resuscitator.

The University of Minnesota Medical School also “aim to build a low-cost, scalable mechanical ventilator that will augment existing medical equipment to increase the availability of mechanical ventilation worldwide, even in low resource areas.”

It is clear that the Emergency Ventilator Project has options to explore. Time is not on their side though, with the coming weeks expected to test South Africa’s healthcare system as COVID-19 spreads and the number of critically ill grows.

We thank Simon du Plooy for contacting the South African with additional information.