India couple develop low-cost ventilator . The prototype was developed in just about three weeks' time

PTI, 27.05.20, Washington: An Indian-American couple has developed a low-cost portable emergency ventilator which is soon to hit the production stage and will be available in India and the developing world to help doctors deal with Covid-19 patients.

Prompted by the lack of adequate ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic, Devesh Ranjan, a professor and associate chair in the prestigious Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and his wife Kumuda Ranjan, a practising family physician in Atlanta, developed the emergency ventilator from concept to prototype in just about three weeks-time.

“If you can do a manufacturing of scale, it can be produced (item cost) in less than $100. Even with a price point of $500, they (the manufacturer) would have enough money to make sure that they are making enough profit in the market,” Prof. Ranjan said.

He said a ventilator of this type, on an average in the US, costs $10,000.

A ventilator takes over the body’s breathing process when the disease has caused the lungs to fail. This gives the patient time to fight off the infection and recover. Ranjan, however, clarified that theirs is not an ICU ventilator, which is more sophisticated. The Open-AirVentGT has been developed to address acute respiratory distress syndrome, a common complication for Covid patients.