Mother converts breast pumps into emergency ventilators

During the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare services all over the world were facing severe shortages of ventilators necessary to treat patients with Covid-19. Knowing about this problem, Brandi Gerstner, an engineer at the University of Maryland, wondered if breast pump could be converted into ventilators: "You know they're reliable, they've been used by moms everywhere for decades. What if I could reverse it?"

So, she took apart her old breast pump and found out that the air flow, that usually flow inward to produce suction, could easily be reversed.

Together with her husband Grant, and colleagues Alex Scott and Rachel LaBatt, they started working further on this concept to turn the breast pumps into functional ventilation devices.

The team reversed the pump to turn it into an intermittent positive pressure system that replicates the functionality of a ventilator. They have also added electronic components that allow for the control of volume and pressure of the air flow and the patient’s respiration rate.
They are working with pulmonologist that are guiding them through the process of getting approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which, during the pandemic of Covid-19, is issuing approval for emergency use medical devices. "Safety is our first and primary focus” explained Gerstner.

The entire project is open source with the team sharing the designs and documentation for the project online and encouraging other engineers or doctor to join the project.

Adapted from: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/maryland-engineers-converting-b...
https://www.insider.com/engineer-turned-her-breast-pump-into-a-ventilato...

More information: https://github.com/BreastPumpVent/Documentation
https://www.facebook.com/BreastPumpVent/

https://youtu.be/EsdwKQgIhpI