3 ms·

"Before we invest too much thought into this, we should focus on getting devices that are sitting around in a basement somewhere back into working order." I'm

by smoyer 7y ago

"Before we invest too much thought into this, we should focus on getting devices that are sitting around in a basement somewhere back into working order." I'm mechanically and electrically handy but don't have a basement full of ventilators. I'm going to send an email to my local hospital ... we'll see how that goes. Anyone have know where else to find ventilators that need to be serviced?

adrianN 7y ago
Vets, dental surgeons, people with old CPAP machines.
- stevespang 7y ago
  CPAP machines don't provide near the pressure needed. The pecking order is CPAP < BiPap < Ventilator. Ventilator is a BiPap on steroids.
- mike_hearn 7y ago
  If you're interested in the complexities associated with retrofitting CPAP machines, I've written a couple of articles about it: https://blog.plan99.net/cpap-for-covid-d47886bf978c https://blog.plan99.net/cpap-for-covid-d47886bf978c https://blog.plan99.net/more-cpap-for-covid-b6911f806c89 https://blog.plan99.net/more-cpap-for-covid-b6911f806c89 The primary difficulties are establishing medical consensus on what kind of pressure therapy is best (continuous vs bi-level) because that affects the availability of machines a lot and there's some disagreement. Secondary is how to stop patients on CPAP machines spraying virus into the air through the masks, however, at least one CPAP machine manufacturer thinks that concern is actually overblown and points to a study showing CPAP masks don't aerosolise to the extent current medical consensus seems to think. Something very clear is that doctors are still figuring out treatment for this and there's some disagreement over what the right way to do things is. Disturbingly it may be that current medical consensus makes things worse for COVID-19 patients rather than better i.e. bi-level pressure therapy hurts the lungs in that state rather than helps (perhaps contributing to a high death rate?).
sabertoothed 7y ago
He mentions it in the article.

by smoyer 7y ago

adrianN 7y ago

Vets, dental surgeons, people with old CPAP machines.

stevespang 7y ago
CPAP machines don't provide near the pressure needed. The pecking order is CPAP < BiPap < Ventilator. Ventilator is a BiPap on steroids.
mike_hearn 7y ago
If you're interested in the complexities associated with retrofitting CPAP machines, I've written a couple of articles about it: https://blog.plan99.net/cpap-for-covid-d47886bf978c https://blog.plan99.net/cpap-for-covid-d47886bf978c https://blog.plan99.net/more-cpap-for-covid-b6911f806c89 https://blog.plan99.net/more-cpap-for-covid-b6911f806c89 The primary difficulties are establishing medical consensus on what kind of pressure therapy is best (continuous vs bi-level) because that affects the availability of machines a lot and there's some disagreement. Secondary is how to stop patients on CPAP machines spraying virus into the air through the masks, however, at least one CPAP machine manufacturer thinks that concern is actually overblown and points to a study showing CPAP masks don't aerosolise to the extent current medical consensus seems to think. Something very clear is that doctors are still figuring out treatment for this and there's some disagreement over what the right way to do things is. Disturbingly it may be that current medical consensus makes things worse for COVID-19 patients rather than better i.e. bi-level pressure therapy hurts the lungs in that state rather than helps (perhaps contributing to a high death rate?).

sabertoothed 7y ago

He mentions it in the article.