In the time of the global coronavirus pandemic, car companies are being summoned upon to help manufacture ventilators to meet the needs of healthcare professionals globally. With COVID-19 affecting the respiratory system of patients mainly, ventilators are a critical component of patient care.
A ventilator is a machine that mimics the functioning of the lungs, forcing air in and out of a patient when the patient is unable to breathe on his/her own.
Faced with a potential crisis in India from the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian SUV maker Mahindra has put together a team to come up with ventilators that can be supplied to hospitals.
Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra tweeted a video of his team in the company's Kandivali and Igatpuri factories coming up with ventilator designs that can be put into production immediately. He says the team came up with the prototypes in just 48 hours.
Globally many car companies have been trying to make ventilators and support doctors treating coronavirus patients. Elon Musk recently tweeted that Tesla could also be looking at making ventilators to fight the crisis.
A team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has also been developing an open-source design respirator to help Covid-19 patients. The design is free to use for manufacturers globally.
MITs design is similar to one of the devices that Mahindra has developed (see video in tweet) which compresses and expands a bag to pump air. This sort of device is used by many emergency rescue teams globally.
Mahindra says the ventilators could be mass-produced soon and costs would be quite low at less than Rs 7,500 a device compared to the lakhs of rupees that large ventilators used in hospitals actually cost. The team is looking for expert guidance on the project.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)