Multi-patient ventilator designed in Mexico for COVID-19 patients is approved

Medical

experts

and veterinarians ran a successful test for the intubation of an 80-kg pig to the prototype of the Automatic Machine for Artificial Breathing (MARA) , which is the only one in the world that can be used by six patients with COVID-19 at the same time.

The equipment was created by a multidisciplinary team led by Pedro Guillermo Mar Hernández , head of the Hermosillo Technological Center (CTH) , and Pedro Ortega Romero , dean of the Sonora State University (UES) .

This technological innovation will make its design, schemes, and programs available for universal use so that it becomes a life alternative during the COVID-19 pandemic .

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Mar Hernández added that the equipment was developed due to the urgent need for ventilators in the world generated by the impact of the new coronavirus that causes respiratory failure. The model was approved by over 20 medical experts.

Nevertheless, the MARA was tested on a pig with a drug-induced coma. It was connected to the MARA and its pulse, breathing, and heart rate were monitored. The whole process was successful .

“We’re in a war against COVID-19 and we are creating alternatives ,” said the head of the CTH while mentioning that there are already many institutions in Mexico and other countries that are interested in bu ilding the machine.

He added that so far, this is the only medical equipment in the world to which six patients can be connected at once, regardless of their clinical picture .

The machine has independent units than can be adjusted in different parameters like oxygen volume, Fio2 oxygen flow, breathing rate, pressing force, positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP), and virus, bacterias, and fungus filtering, among others.

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This ventilator was developed with support from the Marbar Tech Solution company, directed by Carlos Escobar Natarén, as well as from industrial and medical equipment suppliers like Festo, AIISA , Solutions P artner Siemens , Steren , and GMAR Safety Training .

Other experts that participated in the technological development were Irisdea Aguayo Noriega, head of Mexican@s Chingon@s; doctors Bianca Lizbeth Rivera Machichi and Giovanna Rosas, as well as Víctor Manuel Martínez Álvarez, Camila Camacho Badilla, Osvaldo Campa Aguirre, Carlos Enrique Caro Gil, Alexis Arturo Olivares Torres, Dariel Tadeo Bustamante González, and Ángel Adrián Bonillas Castro.

MARA

can be easily replicated by engineers specialized in automation since it took three days for the multidisciplinary team to develop the project and three weeks to run the tests.

Its use promotes the reduction of medical personnel for insufflation tasks and less risk of infection for healthcare workers.

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