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Can 3D printing accelerate ventilator mfg?

3 points by kbedell ↗ HN
Is it possible to manufacture ventilators using a combination of 3D printed parts and locally available off the shelf components?

Second question: How to organize a project to make it possible and publish plans?

4 comments

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kbedell
I'm thinking it might be possible to build ventilators locally -- maybe even in a hospital as needed -- if it were possible to assemble them from a kit of inexpensive parts plus site-printed 3D components.

Does anyone have thoughts on this? It seems like an idea that could save millions of lives.

bradknowles
Why does everyone focus on the ventilators?

The hardware is cheap relative to the experience and 24x7 care that is required to keep you from dying while you’re on the ventilator. Hell, even if it’s $15,000 or even 50k, that’s still probably less than just one days cost of having you in ICU, where you’d need to be if you were on a ventilator.

My dad died of pneumonia. We got there one day after they put him on the ventilator. He never woke up. He was never able to get off the ventilator.

After about seven days on a ventilator, the call you have to make is whether or not to replace the tube going in his mouth and down into the lungs with a trache tube, knowing that if you go the trache tube route he should be able to be taken off the coma-inducing sedatives, but then he’s going to be in a long-term care facility for months or years or the rest of his life.

All my dad wanted to do was to go home to his cats, but he knew the pneumonia was severe and he knew how painful the tube would be, so he asked them to keep him under while on the ventilator. And he never woke up.

Stop focusing on the ventilator. By the time they need one, they have much bigger problems.

shadowfaxRodeo
People are focusing on the ventilators because in Italy there aren't enough to go around, and they have had to triage them.

The UK government just put out a plea to manufacturers to make ventilators for the same reason.

There are also lots of unstable regions of the world that won't be able to get ventilators at scale. In those places being able to build one with off the shelf parts will save lives.