Jury-rigged: from the french jour, day. A lash-up sufficient to get through a day.
A jury for a trial, was originally empanelled for a day, and so named a jury.
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Just give me my damned soma!
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The engineer in me did a rapid mental calculation and concluded that an overpressure (however derived) of one bar amounts to something between a half-tonne to a tonne equivalent force. On the ribs that would be likely to break something – probably the intercostal connective tissue – but the abdomen would just inflate to rupture. I don’t think one atmosphere is going to be the limiting factor.
The rest --space occupied, training, etc – I grant freely. Hard to use an iron lung for a surgical patient, for instance, and I would bet on a very large share of ventilators being used temporarily that purpose. Which in turn means a whole lot of use for them outside of the current one. Even if that were the only difference, it would drive the “market” towards positive-pressure breathing aids. While at it, I’ll also note that you don’t have to have a separate supply for O2; it’s all one neat package.
So I’m not at all surprised that positive-pressure vents dominate. OTOH, in an emergency like now the fact that you can do a negative-pressure system in any halfway decent machine shop might end up making a difference. When your “ICU” gets to including high-school gyms [1]
[1] I’m old enough to remember polio in the news, rows and rows of “iron lungs” with nurses walking them. The ability to build them quickly and cheaply plus the fact that they’re easier on long-termp patients, made a difference then. Half that today.
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As I said, never used one, honestly, never even seen one. I don’t know what the outcome would be if you tried to use one with the beat to hell lungs that these patients are reported to have. I feel I can speak with some experience and authority to the use and effect of PPV in most situations. NPV? Spitballing and guessing. But I suspect jury-rigging NPV would be worlds easier and probably safer then PPV. Lots of us have vacuum pumps in our houses, but engineer would have to run calculations as to volume required to be moved and the various and sundry variables. Way out of my league! The more I think about it, the more it might be worth it if we actually come to “Hey! Joe rigged up a ventilator in his basement! Lets take mom there!” Especially since it would not require intubation, which is the most technically demanding part of PPV. Still, not data, no experience, and OMG YMMV.
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Ha! My reference was not lost. Thanks
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Alberta professors build ventilator prototype using shop vac, Home Depot bucket
A negative pressure plastic lung built from odds’n’ends.
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This one looks pretty basic.
The scary thing is that even this $500 unit is probably a First World solution.
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