3 ms·

How does an anesthesia machine fail safe? What I mean is, does it continue applying anesthetic in the event of a power failure or does that stop entirely?

• Aleman360 11y ago
  It can operate completely mechanically. There is an integrated UPS in case mains fails. If the battery also fails, a pneumatic whistle goes off to alert the user. If for some reason something goes really bad, they switch to using an ambu bag, typically hung on the back of the machine.
  • david-given 11y ago
    I like the idea of the pneumatic whistle. A pressure vessel with a sprung loaded valve held closed by a solenoid, maybe? However it works, it's a really neat piece of lateral thinking.
    • ux-app 11y ago
      a kind of "dead man's whistle" is guess?