NAVY’S VENTILATOR TO HELP 6 AT A TIME

NEW DELHI: As the country prepares to handle a rising number of cases and meet its need for ventilators, the Indian navy has pitched in with an innovative ventilator design that can cater to six patients simultaneously.

“Personnel from Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam have designed an innovative ‘Portable Multi-feed Oxygen Manifold(mom)’ using a 6-way radial header fitted to a single cylinder. This innovation will enable one Oxygen Bottle to supply six patients concurrently thus enabling critical care management to a larger number of Covid patients with the existing limited resources,” the statement said.

A typical facility at hospitals comprises an oxygen cylinder feeding only one patient through a Ventimask arrangement. “A need was therefore felt to design a suitable portable arrangement that could provide oxygen through masks to a number of needy patients using a singlecylinder during emergencies,” the statement read.

The preliminary trials were conducted at the dockyard, followed by rapid trials at the Naval Hospital, INHS Kalyani, in which the device was successfully set up within 30 minutes.

The Naval Dockyard has started manufacturing 10 portable MOMS with two 6-way radial headers, which can cater to 120 patients at makeshift locations.

With close to 1200 cases having tested positive for Covid-19, India is ramping up its capacity, and has already placed an order of 40,000 ventilators.

A domestic manufacturer, Agva Healthcare in Noida, has been able to develop suitable ventilators and an order of 10,000 units has been placed with it.

In addition, an order for 30,000 ventilators has been placed on Bharat Electronics Limited, which will collaborate with domestic manufacturers.