Hero Pakistani-American Doctor, invented a splitter to support 7 patients with 1 Ventilator

[Αиgяу вιя∂]

Residents in Connecticut threw an ‘unsung heroes parade’ for a Pakistani-American doctor who created a ventilator that can treat seven #coronavirus patients at once.

Dr Saud Anwar
That passion has not gone unnoticed. An "unsung hero parade" of cars drove past Anwar's home last week to thank the doctor for his work.

"Thank you for all your heroism," read a sign on one of the cars.

Dyer agreed. "Without [Anwar's] willingness to get involved, without him being open to the [ventilator device] idea [it] would have gone absolutely nowhere," Dyer said.

For Anwar, the battle against the coronavirus starts with making sure those on the front lines have the necessary protection and equipment.

"If people have equated the current COVID pandemic with a war ... then the healthcare workers, the physicians, the nurses, the respiratory therapists [and] the nurses' aids - these are the front-line warriors," he said. "They need their protection and they need their support. And they need an investment to make sure that they are well taken care of all over the world. Because between this invisible illness and the protection of our society, it is just one force of healthcare workers standing there."

 

[Ahmet Pasha]

I'm sure he won't make it into the news.
But if he had yelled Allah ho akbar and blew up the hospital then he would have stayed in the news for years.

 

[xuxu1457]

good job ，bad condition

 

[Sleepy Cat]

Many respiratory organizations are warning against this kind of usage. It is not recommended and could be dangerous to patients with serious conditions.

https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/new...statement-on-multiple-patients-per-ventilator

https://www.aarc.org/joint-statement-guidance-document-on-multiple-patients-per-ventilator/

 

[Hack-Hook]

wonder how he can acurately choose setting with such mods

 

[swnjo]

wonder how he can acurately choose setting with such mods

you can't. If say 5 patients of similar weight with each requiring 500ml of tidal volume, you will set the volume delivered to 2500ml. You could only hope that volume reaching to each patient is suitable and hope that all the patients have same requirement. The OP mentions 7 patients, i don't even think there is any ventilator which could deliver so much in cumulative volume or pressure. very dangerous and not applicable in real life.

 

[masterchief_mirza]

you can't. If say 5 patients of similar weight with each requiring 500ml of tidal volume, you will set the volume delivered to 2500ml. You could only hope that volume reaching to each patient is suitable and hope that all the patients have same requirement. The OP mentions 7 patients, i don't even think there is any ventilator which could deliver so much in cumulative volume or pressure. very dangerous and not applicable in real life.

Do you know the details of this device? I sure don't but maybe it has individual valve type modulators on each output arm. I don't think it's impossible in mechanical terms to remodulate the output directed towards each patient.

 

[Hack-Hook]

Do you know the details of this device? I sure don't but maybe it has individual valve type modulators on each output arm. I don't think it's impossible in mechanical terms to remodulate the output directed towards each patient.

what about ventilation rate , peep, ventilation to expiration ratio , .........
what if patients lungs have different compliance

 

[masterchief_mirza]

what about ventilation rate , peep, ventilation to expiration ratio , .........
what if patients lungs have different compliance

Yep. Would be very hard if not impossible to modulate these. Whatever this device does, it obviously has limitations but perhaps it is intended for temporary use as an emergency.

 

[Ahmet Pasha]

Obviously bro
It's bad for their business not just right now but in future as well.

Many respiratory organizations are warning against this kind of usage. It is not recommended and could be dangerous to patients with serious conditions.

https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/new...statement-on-multiple-patients-per-ventilator

https://www.aarc.org/joint-statement-guidance-document-on-multiple-patients-per-ventilator/

 

[swnjo]

Do you know the details of this device? I sure don't but maybe it has individual valve type modulators on each output arm. I don't think it's impossible in mechanical terms to remodulate the output directed towards each patient.

no independent modulator , otherwise that would make a separate ventilator in itself. its just multiple T tube diverging out of the inspiratory limb and similarly converging into expiatory limb. We did the same experiment with just two ambu bags of different volumes, the alarms went crazy. We decided to hand our JR ambu bags & hand ventilate in turns rather than putting patients in such contraption. very dangerous.

what about ventilation rate , peep, ventilation to expiration ratio , .........
what if patients lungs have different compliance

not possible.in case of different compliance, one of the patient will end up with vali and quicker death

 

[Sleepy Cat]

Obviously bro
It's bad for their business not just right now but in future as well.

Nonsense. They raised some legitimate medical concerns that no qualified doctor can deny. As mentioned in the joint statement, adding multiple patients to a single ventilator using a splitter is a health risk because:

• Volumes would go to the most compliant lung segments.
• Positive end‐expiratory pressure, which is of critical importance in these patients, would be impossible to manage.
• Monitoring patients and measuring pulmonary mechanics would be challenging, if not impossible.
• Alarm monitoring and management would not be feasible.
• Individualized management for clinical improvement or deterioration would be impossible.
• In the case of a cardiac arrest, ventilation to all patients would need to be stopped to allow the change to bag ventilation without aerosolizing the virus and exposing healthcare workers. This circumstance also would alter breath delivery dynamics to the other patients.
• The added circuit volume defeats the operational self‐test (the test fails). The clinician would be required to operate the ventilator without a successful test, adding to errors in the measurement.
• Additional external monitoring would be required. The ventilator monitors the average pressures and volumes.
• Even if all patients connected to a single ventilator have the same clinical features at initiation, they could deteriorate and recover at different rates, and distribution of gas to each patient would be unequal and unmonitored. The sickest patient would get the smallest tidal volume and the improving patient would get the largest tidal volume.
• The greatest risks occur with sudden deterioration of a single patient (e.g., pneumothorax, kinked endotracheal tube), with the balance of ventilation distributed to the other patients.
• Finally, there are ethical issues. If the ventilator can be lifesaving for a single individual, using it on more than one patient at a time risks life‐threatening treatment failure for all of them.

Moreover, if this statement was backed by businessmen alone with a financial motive, then they wouldn't have been able to get all of the major respiratory organizations from multiple states to issue a joint statement in such a short amount of time.

It can probably be used as a last ditch high risk effort but not something any experienced doctor would recommend or suggest.

 

[Jackdaws]

Hero, for sure. Good job.

 

[padamchen]

Yep. Would be very hard if not impossible to modulate these. Whatever this device does, it obviously has limitations but perhaps it is intended for temporary use as an emergency.

What is Dr Anwar's ethnicity?

Most WhatsApp videos about him weeks ago actually said he was an Iranian expat.

Confused now.

 

[masterchief_mirza]

What is Dr Anwar's ethnicity?

Most WhatsApp videos about him weeks ago actually said he was an Iranian expat.

Confused now.

I'm just assuming he's Pakistani as described in the op. That could be incorrect I guess but I have no other info