Inventor creates emergency ventilator to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic

In Kashmir, a region that’s located between India and Pakistan, reports stated that there were little more than 100 ventilators available to provide for a population of 12,5 million people. Knowing about his situation, 22-year-old inventor Waseem Ahmad Nadaf realized that the region was not equipped to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. So, he decided to put his innovation capacities to work and started working on a low-cost emergency ventilator.

"I was already thinking about this, about how to make this ventilator. But the second thing is, anybody can do this. Anyone can create a solution, but you have to be efficient and low-cost because otherwise the people who live in slums, those most in danger, they won't be able to use the ventilator", the inventor explained.

The first prototype of the ventilator was made from scraps and materials he found around his house, like a CD drive and a motor he took from an old printer. The system he created works by compressing a common manual ventilation bag.

Waseem won second prize in the ventilator category at the Covid-19 Open Innovation Challenge, promoted by IIED - NIT Srinagar. The prize will help him further develop the product, but his aim is to keep it simple and low-cost: “My whole idea to make the ventilator was, when it is time of emergency, how we can make ventilators on a local level, so that we can help local people, and the same model can be replicated in different regions".

Adapted from:
https://scoop.upworthy.com/young-innovator-in-kashmir-makes-low-cost-ven...
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/j-k/22-year-old-srinagar-man-creates-v...
https://kashmirreader.com/2020/04/24/covid19-innovation-challenge-awards...

https://youtu.be/fBOJDfLD-ME , https://youtu.be/bPtpFBtzptA