A Multiple Emergency Ventilator as backup solution for disaster situations: prototype development and functional assessment

Shared ventilation is an interesting topic amongst researchers due to the possibility of healthcare saturation under disaster conditions provoked by viruses, war environments, diffusive respiratory system diseases, etc. However, general outcomes from this practice have shown several risks. The Multiple Emergency Ventilator overcomes these hazards by providing a temporary, pressure-controlled ventilatory support for up to ten patients simultaneously, whilst allowing for a modular and fast assembly during emergencies. This article presents the construction and the assessment of the prototype using patient simulators with different types of bio-mechanical characteristic configurations at ten hospitalization stations. Ventilation parameters at the most distal-to-source station were recorded. Under normal operation, a minute ventilation of 9.6 breaths × L × min^-1 was obtained. Critical operation during different types of localized sudden pneumatic disconnections was also investigated. Amongst these, only the event of a disconnection of any simulator at its pneumatic connection to the main distribution pipeline highlighted a poor minute ventilation of 4 breaths × L × min^-1. Yet, the probability of such an event is minimal due to the use of safe mechanical constraints at the relevant pneumatic connections. In this first prototype assessment, the device has shown its capabilities to ventilate multiple patients with consistent pressure behaviours even whilst adverse conditions are imposed.