An Emergency Portable Ventilator for COVID Patients with Acute Breathing Difficulty

In this paper, a design of a ventilator that meets the demand for emergency ventilators required to help patients with acute breathing difficulty during pandemics such as the current COVID-19 pandemic is presented. The AMBU bag based ventilator can be fabricated at low cost and is easily affordable by hospitals. Based on readily available components, the ventilator will cost about INR6000, and can be easily maintained by even non-technical medical personnel. It works on regular AC supply of 220V and runs on 12V DC supply drawing about 1.5A current. The ventilator is light in weight weighing about 2Kg and is easily portable. The use of individually addressable light emitting diodes and a photo- resistor for positioning of the pushrod is an innovative feature of the ventilator. It meets the requirement of emergency ventilators for use during the waiting period before a full fledged ventilator is available to the patient.