Ventilator

Apparently, they are doing that in Italy...

https://www.upworthy.com/italian-engineers-brilliant-3-d-printed-hack-turns-scuba-gear-into-ventilator-masks

Of course it is <...possible...>. Go for it.

Many things wouldneed to be tweeked but I don';t se why not. The biggest thing is your SCUBA is designed to counter higher external pressure. It could very easily dmage the lungs.

But wait, there's now emerging evidence that shows invasive ventilators may actually be increasing deaths due to creation of blood clots that Covid seems to increase. Ah the joys of a "novel" virus. No telling what it will do.

I've bumped into this one with the Ventsplitter, a set of tees and restrictors that allow a ventilator to support up to four patients.

The problem is that hospitals will not consider even bringing it on the premises until the hospital reaches the point that they have to select among patients which ones will get a ventilator and which ones have to go without. This is because of approvals and protocols, insurance and legal liabilities. It's also not clear that any sort of good samaritan laws would protect the hospital or the equipment maker.

The Ventsplitter supposedly has some sort of FDA approval as a treatment of last resort. However, I am 3D printing Montana Masks, face shield frames and ventspllitters, but no hospitals where I am located (Oregon) will even look at them because they are not swamped with patients (Providence) or I am not contracted supplier (Kaiser Permanente). Instead I am printing and shipping to Adventhealth Hospital in Talaveras Florida because a local doctor there is facilitating putting crowdsource material into their system for PPE.

BiPAP manufacturer Respironics made information on their equipment early on to allow the BiPAP to be adapted as emergency respirators of last resort, but I haven't heard of any instances where the modification has been placed in service. The demand for ventilators appears to have been satisfied at present and the initial hot spots (New York and LA) aren't using everything that was sent and have been returning some ventilators, so unless the containment processes are significantly relaxed, I don't expect the demand for home-made is going to continue.

What is emerging is that the Invasive Ventilator has a disturbingly high mortality rate. They have since released guidelines to use BiPaPs and Cpaps first and earlier along with O2 and are seeing fewer fatalities. A developing situation as the blood clot issue is a surprise that complicates oxygenation.

The ancillary problems are far more numerous with this bugger than other Coronas we have dealt with and evidence is suggesting it may do more damage to organs and tissues than originally thought.

The Joys of a "novel" virus.

Thanks for doing what you can to help. If we all did it this would pass quickly.

I am producing dilution blanks and solutions for testing in UW and other labs here in between production batches. We have an ISO certified pharma production lab. Took about a week to get everything in place. (just one more challenge for a person whose title is reliability engineer and whose experience is anything but.) Been rocking it ever since. Got some amazing folks working here. I am very proud of the efforts of our people.

The main problem lays in the domain of the equipment user. Not many will have any prior experience of having a <...diving respirator...> mouthpiece permanently stuck in the cake-hole.

I received an inquiry from an emergency room doctor attempting to do fine tuning on a design for a filter adapter toa full face snorkeling mask. He was learning 3D modeling on Fusion 360 and was 3D printing an adapter for the top port on the mask to a HEPA filter box. His intent was to hav it available for emergency room use. The mask didn't have a mouthpiece and used porting down the sides of the faceplate to bring fresh air down to the mouth and nose area. His problem was that he was printing with a Prusa machine in PLA with the part oriented with the locking tabs perpendicular to the print layers and the tabs were breaking off. My suggestion was that he reorient the part so that the print layers ran the length of the lock tab and that he switch from PLA to ABS for greater toughness.

I had previously used something similar at Trojan Nuclear Plant in the form of an air fed hood that included a fan and battery to provide a forced flow of filtered air to reduce fogging as well as reducing user fatigue as it takes work to pull air through the filter over a period of several hours. The snorkeling mask looked to me like a great idea, particularly since your full face was visible making for better communications and emotional connection. For the long run, I think a face mask vacuum formed from clear plastic with side mount filter elements would be a good way to maintain social connection in a masked world.