Aaron designing simple, inexpensive ventilators
As the number of coronavirus cases across the country rise, the pressure on the health system is inevitably going to increase as a result.
In order to help the situation, a west Sligo man is involved in innovative and potentially life-saving research that is seeking to establish a way in which emergency open-source ventilators can be built.
A ventilator is a medical device used to keep a patient breathing when they become critically ill due to a respiratory disease
Aaron Hannon, a native of Enniscrone, is involved in the group called the Covid Response Team (CRT).
They are a broad team composed of medical doctors, engineers, innovators and students, and are working in collaboration with experts in research institution across Ireland the UK. A not-forprofit group, they have received support of Enterprise Ireland, but have also sought donations from the public. A GoFundMe page received in excess of €50,000 in just 48 hours last week.
“The level of support for the campaign has been phenomenal so far,” Aaron told The Sligo Champion.
“We’re very hopeful of building a solution that will save many lives.”
The importance of the work being carried out by Aaron and his colleagues is emphasised in projections surrounding coronavirus treatment in Ireland, and also by efforts in other countries to treat patients. In Italy, a severe shortage of ventilators has hindered the ability of the medical profession there to treat those with Covid-19.
The government says it has been in contact with companies in order to provide more ventilators, but should the CRT group succeed in their ambition to create suitable emergency ventilators, they will help address the shortage of such equipment in Ireland and elsewhere.
They say their mission is “to design simple, fast and inexpensive-to-build equipment, which is straightforward for staff to operate and which requires little or no supply chain such that it can be rapidly introduced to hospitals worldwide by local healthcare services.”
Aaron outlined the urgent need for ventilators in Ireland as the Covid-19 spreads and the amount of patients requiring treatment increases.
“Worryingly, as per the most recent HSE audit, Ireland only has access to approximately 250 ventilators. For context, in a full year in Ireland, 7000 patients are ventilated. In the next few months, we might need to do more than 10 times that.” he says.
To donate to the cause, find the GoFundMe page entitled ‘Keep Breathing: Fund Emergency COVID19 Ventilators’ online.
An entrepreneur with significant success to date, Aaron is based in Galway currently where he works as a research fellow with the Translational Medical Device Lab. He has enjoyed extensive success as a student entrepreneur and innovator - amongst other awards, he was crowned SciFest national champion in 2018 for his invention EnableArm, a shaving device for people with limited hand dexterity.