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Keep Breathing NYC - COVID Ventilation Fund

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COVID-19 is pushing our hospitals and doctors to their absolute limits.
In response, we are offering free, open-source designs for intubation boxes and 3D printed ventilator circuit splitters. We are also creating and delivering this urgently needed equipment to hospitals and doctors on the front lines in NYC. 
 
Our mission is to help local communities craft simple, fast, and inexpensive emergency equipment that can be rapidly introduced to hospitals to protect doctors and offer a method of last-resort support to ventilator supply issues. AS MENTIONED IN TIME MAGAZINE 

Around the world, doctors and nurses are struggling to protect themselves from the very patients they are trying to save and an extreme shortage of ventilators – forcing them to make decisions about who will live and who will die. These deaths might be preventable if temporary solutions were available to sustain patients.

Our website provides open-source designs for ventilation splitters  that will allow a single machine to support multiple patients, and an open-source design for an intubation box  that will protect doctors on the front lines from contracting COVID-19 as they try to save critical patients.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO COVER COSTS OF MATERIALS AND DELIVERY TO THE FRONT LINES

Your generous donations will help us with: 

delivery/pickup/logistics of creating/picking up/delivery to hospitals

material (filament for 3d) to print at a larger scale

material for intubation boxes

legal costs

Any extra funds raised will be funneled to adapt to current COVID response needs, whether it's towards other projects, and/or donating to other COVID-19 response organizations and charities


Intubator Box:

The Intubation box is an inexpensive temporary protection device originally devised by Dr. Hsien Yung Lai in Taiwan. It works by sitting over the head and shoulders of a patient as they are intubated by a provider. The box acts as a protective shield between the patient and medical staff, thereby hopefully minimizing the medical staff’s exposure to Coronavirus (COVID-19). After each intubation, the box can be cleaned with a bleach or alcohol solution. The Sani-Cloth wipes that most hospitals have will work perfectly.



What is a Ventilator?

A mechanical ventilator is a machine that is used to support patients with severe respiratory conditions that impact the lungs. When in operation, a ventilator moves breathable air in and out of the lungs, delivering necessary breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe or is breathing insufficiently.


Anticipated Demand Will Exceed Ventilator Capacity

A ventilator is a machine designed to provide mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe or breathing insufficiently.
There is no pharmacological solution for COVID-19 yet, which means that patients will need assisted breathing until the illness naturally runs its course, which could be 2-4 weeks.
Because patients are staying on life support longer, the limited number of machines available, combined with the skyrocketing demand, creates a condition that could result in a massive shortage.  
According to the CDC, as of Thursday, March 26th, more than 85,000 people in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19, and many more remain untested.   
NYC has more than 33,800 cases alone and accounts for 30% of all cases in America.  The numbers are believed to be much higher due to the lack of adequate testing.
The limited number of machines available combined with the skyrocketing demand means that we could be facing significant shortages.


The Solution

Splitting a ventilator allows one machine to temporarily sustain the breathing of multiple patients. Splitting a ventilator is a high-risk procedure of last resort. It is a temporary method for hospitals in crisis to stabilize multiple critical patients until individual ventilators can be delivered from other facilities.

Medical teams on the front lines are already building splitters from spare parts that allow each ventilator machine to service multiple patients, but they are facing supply shortages and don't have the time to scale production or the tools to work quickly and precisely. 

The concept of ventilator splitting was first documented by Dr. Neyman and Dr. Irvin (Ac Emergency Medicine 2006). Although only simulated in the original article, this technique was successfully used by Dr. Menes in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. By using T-tubes and adapters, he was able to treat four patients could share a single ventilator until more ventilators were delivered from another facility.

You can see a splitter system here:






Thank you for your help! 

Your generous donations will help us with: 

delivery/pickup/logistics of creating/picking up/delivery to hospitals

material (filament for 3d) to print at a larger scale

material for intubation boxes

legal costs

Any extra funds raised will be funneled to adapt to current COVID response needs, whether it's towards other projects, and/or donating to other COVID-19 response organizations and charities


About Us

We are a multidisciplinary group from a range of diverse backgrounds committed to developing an open-source solution to treat the vastly increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients and the doctors treating them.





Get Involved

Please respond here: https://forms.gle/Ff4pyAeNzX6Vkj1k6

We want to cooperate with like-minded groups driving for a common goal: to equip healthcare teams so as many lives as possible can be saved. 


Get In Touch

Contact us at [email redacted].

We will respond as soon as possible.

www.keepbreathing.world


Medical disclaimer

These devices are based on an experimental design and they have not been clinically tested. These designs are not approved by the FDA or other medical licensing bodies. Successful use of these devices is based upon anecdote and not clinical trials.

The use of these devices is at the sole risk and responsibility of a healthcare provider, hospital, doctor or other medical professionals. Keep Breathing NYC and PSS Innovations, LLC makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the effectiveness of these devices. Information provided and related designs/plans are not to be substituted for the advice of licensed medical professionals.




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Donations 

  • Matt Herron
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    • 4 yrs
  • Gabriel Harris
    • $100 
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  • Anonymous
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  • David Raven
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    • $30 
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Fundraising team (7)

Timothy Phillips
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY
Angel Pai
Team member
Lizzie Renck
Team member
Kim Herrero
Team member
William Cheung
Team member

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