UMMC unveils makeshift ventilators available if needed

Ventilators that are Mississippi made. That’s what a team of doctors at the University of Mississippi Medical Center has been working on.

So far, they’ve built about 170 ventilators using garden hoses, a lamp timer, and an electronic valve.

These ventilators would be the last go to if the hospital was to ever get into a situation where it ran out of FDA approved ventilators.

The hospital said it has conducted in house testing and results show this version of a ventilator could work, however, it would only happen if it ends up being the only option for a patient.

“The commercially made ventilators are fancier. They’re doing more things, they’re a little more efficient. The basic concept of a ventilator isn’t sophisticated. You need a connection to the lungs, you increase the air pressure, air flows into the lungs, you release the pressure, air flows out. The role of this ventilator is if there’s nothing else available,” said UMMC pediatric anesthesiologist Dr. Charles Roberston.

UMMC has filed for an Emergency Use Authorization to the FDA and that has to be approved before these ventilators would be allowed to be used in the fight against COVID-19.