Manufacturing personal ventilators with low cost

At Vietnamese hospitals today, the number of ventilators is very small compared to the actual needs of patients. Most patients have to use hand balls to support breathing, which is both hard and counterproductive if not used properly.

Stemming from that fact, Mr. Ho Tang Hoat, 50 years old, in Phan Rang-Thap Cham City, Ninh Thuan Province has developed the idea of ​​creating a ventilator for breathing patients to ensure the main character. breathing determination, reducing the strength of people squeezing breathing aids by hand. The machine is manufactured with low cost, creating opportunities for poor people to have treatment conditions.

At the first contest of science and technology creativity in Ninh Thuan province in 2011, this product won the third prize and will be sent to Hanoi for the 11th National Science and Technology Innovation Contest.

Mr. Ho Tang Hoat previously worked at the plant protection division of Nha Ho Cotton Research Institute (Ninh Thuan), but he himself enjoyed mechanical-electronics. Retired from the end of 2002, he opened an electronic and refrigeration repair shop.

He shared : 'In 2009, my younger brother had a stroke, had to transfer to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. On the way, my family had to take turns to squeeze the ball to help breathing continuously by hand, so it was very tired, sometimes squeezing not in accordance with the patient's breathing. If you hire a squeeze, you must pay a salary of 40,000 VND / hour. Since then, I have just come up with the idea of ​​making an automatic machine to help the hands, but the machine can work all day, at the same time, low cost helps the poor get access to the product, reduce effort human and a small part of the cost of treatment. '

Understanding carefully the information from the doctors, in September 2010 he began to design the model and started working on it in May 2011. After 2 months, the air-assisted ventilation machine was born.

Based on the information he collected, a person has about 10-20 breaths in and out in a minute depending on each person's condition. He calculated, on average, people will have about 2 seconds of inhalation, 2 seconds of exhalation and he designed the ball to follow the parameters.

The device also has a button to adjust the number of breaths per minute, a volume adjustment button for ventilation, speed to squeeze the ball (slow-fast) to suit each person and an alarm to indicate when the power is lost. It can use 2 AC power sources (on-site power supply) and DC (using batteries on the move) so it is very convenient.

This product is also supported by his son Ho Le Nguyen Vu working at FPT Company in Ho Chi Minh City. He said that his son helped program the operation of the machine to increase accuracy and reduce product size.

Since having the idea until the machine was built, Mr. Hoat has improved 7 designs. At present, he is making a sample No. 8 to improve the technical parameters as advised by Ninh Thuan General Hospital. Through improvements, the mechanical part of the machine has been more powerful, the circuit works more accurately, more functions and a more compact form.

'If selling this product to the market by manual production method, it will cost about 2 million dong, but if it is invested in mass production, the price will be much lower. Meanwhile, a breathing machine imported from abroad is worth 1 billion dong, ' Hoat said.

At present, his greatest desire is to have the support of the hospital to have the environment to put the product into trial, and expect his product to reach many people.

Mr. Do Trung Thu, Standing Vice Chairman of Ninh Thuan Union of Science and Technology Associations, said that the medical jury has confirmed that this is a good topic that can be applied.

Currently Ninh Thuan General Hospital is conducting additional tests, confirming some technical parameters (such as oxygen volume, chest volume, heart rate). If satisfactory, this product applies very well, efficiently and economically.