OxyGEN: Open-Source AMBU Respirator | Hacker News Reader

OxyGEN: Open-Source AMBU Respirator

oxygen.protofy.xyz

108 pointseloycoto13 comments

I’m not sure about the exact mechanics, but we are being advised to minimize ‘bagging’ (ie using the ambu-bag to help patients breath before they are intubated) as much as possible. We worry about the markedly increased risk of aersolization of the virus by ambu-bags. So, I’d be sure that isn’t an issue with this device before pushing it out too broadly.

I'm impressed. Maybe those guys in Italy who 3d printed the valves can 3d print some of these components. I'm guessing the doctors there would be willing to try anything at this point.

Seems like this can be produced much faster on a CNC. 3D printing of large parts is extremely slow.

That said, I'm not even sure this is useful at all in practice, since I'm not a doctor. This needs to work on an intubated patient, and be able to maintain a sanitary environment, neither of which it'll probably be able to do to the extent required by health and safety regulations. But I'd love to be proven wrong by someone more knowledgeable in this case.

> This needs to work on an intubated patient, and be able to maintain a sanitary environment, neither of which it'll probably be able to do to the extent required by health and safety regulations.

I totally agree with you... but in the case where there are no respirators available at all, I'd rather have a 10% chance of secondary infection or contamination than just die.

I don't see a device like this as being a replacement for a $50k computer controlled machine, but as a stopgap in desperate emergencies.

> I totally agree with you... but in the case where there are no respirators available at all, I'd rather have a 10% chance of secondary infection or contamination than just die.

But what if that 10% requires much more and longer medical care, doctors attention etc, such that someone else dies because they didn’t get treatment? I’m not saying it definitely is, but presumably the tradeoffs from a medical perspective are about more than about one personal perspective (which of course is a rational perspective)

The other issue is that an ambu-bag doesn't work the same way a ventilator does, and can't provide the functionality that a critically ill respiratory patient would need. It can shove air into the lungs, but it can't manage pressures during the other phases of ventilation (which are equally, or even more, important).

> but it can't manage pressures during the other phases of ventilation (which are equally, or even more, important).

Can you please elaborate on this? What pressures and what phases are involved? The author explicitly calls for help and input from people to make it more functional and easier to built. Maybe your concerns can be addressable and they would be helpful. In Italy doctors have to pick who to connect ventilators as they don't have enough number of them. This thing has the potential to save at least 1 more patient if not thousands.

> In Italy doctors have to pick who to connect ventilators

I've read that this was exaggerated by the media. A doctor said that they _may at some point have to_ pick whom to treat, which the press has interpreted as them writing death warrants to those over 80.

Decisions about who to put on a ventilator are happening daily in Italy. It is no exaggeration

It's a physical limitation of the bag style ventilation, it's not something you could design around by squeezing the bag differently.

For instance, the amount of "back pressure" during exhalation is important when managing ARDS patients. The ambu-bag can only exert pressure when it is being actively squeezed, and you can only squeeze it so far.

SEAT (VAG), Spanish car maker, making use of this.

https://twitter.com/tierraymadera/status/1241662339528773632...

https://twitter.com/jcarlosnorte/status/1241708833476575233?...

Not a ventilator. No intubation = not a ventilator. Great work, but these guys should really avoid using the term "ventilator" given current circumstances; it just muddies the water around a very important issue (ventilator shortages).

Sure. When the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, then this works.

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