However, satisfactory ventilator supply has posed a greater challenge in rural, low- and middle- income communities (LMICs), where obtaining and maintaining conventional medical-grade mechanical ventilators is not feasible ( Guérin and Lévy, 2020). Support groups around the world rapidly responded by developing low-cost “homemade” mechanical ventilators for use in emergency surge crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic ( Albert et al., 2020 Blacker et al., 2020 Galbialta et al., 2020 Garmendia et al., 2020 King et al., 2020 Pearce, 2020 Zuckerberg et al., 2020 MIT Emergency Ventilator, 2020a).įortunately, the need for mechanical ventilators in the United States so far have been overestimated preliminary reporting indicates that only 13.9% of the approximately 130,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2020 required ventilatory support ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). Based on these realities, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for guidance on developing new or repurposing non-ICU ventilators to treat COVID-19 ( U.S.
Early estimates also suggested that several hundred thousand to greater than 1 million ventilators might be needed to care for COVID-19 patients in the United States alone ( Ranney et al., 2020). Original projections by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that anywhere between 2.4 and 21 million people may ultimately require hospitalization due to COVID-19 ( Fink, 2020). A number of guidelines have been published regarding the management of medical resources, including mechanical ventilators, during emergency and disaster surge situations ( Aziz et al., 2020 Frederick and White, 2020 Maves et al., 2020). A low reserve of ventilators means healthcare capacity could be overwhelmed by a large healthcare crisis. Most hospitals operate with an adequate but limited supply of ventilators as purchase and maintenance costs can be prohibitive ( Heather Glass, 2019).
Commercial ventilators are expensive devices due to numerous features and multiple modes, commonly costing over 25,000 USD. Mechanical ventilation is an often lifesaving intervention in intensive care and emergent situations for patients who experience acute respiratory failure, including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), manifested by progressive hypoxemia, respiratory acidosis, excessive work of breathing, and high respiratory rates ( Slutsky, 1993).
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