At a time when many Covid-19 patients are dying due to respiratory-related problems, a ventilation device developed by a group of students of the IIIT, Bhubaneswar seems to have come as a big support to save lives of such patients.
The first-of-its-kind device is shaped as a helmet and works on the principle of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. With this device, a person would inhale almost pure oxygen to speed up his body’s healing process.
Named ‘Swasner’, it can act as an alternative for people suffering from respiratory diseases in emergency situation, claimed the the engineering students.
The device is completely made up of medicated plastic collected from the Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology (CIPET). It has two plastic rings bearing three ports to make the base. A round-shaped piece of mackintosh fabric is stitched to the rings so as to have a T-shirt like grip on the user’s neck. The base is fitted to the bubble-like enclosure or chamber inside which pure oxygen is pumped in. The device can be connected to wall-mounted oxygen cylinders in hospitals, said the students.
Ananya Aprameya, Tapaswin Padhi, Sidharth Shankar Nayak, Sai Sambit Nayak, Divyajyoti Dash, Shovit Mitra and Vitthal Gupta of the IIIT Bhubaneswar, Jivitesh Debata of ITER and Nand Kishore Gupta of NSIT Delhi took four months to design the device.
The “Swasner” can be used as an affordable alternative against costly ventilator. Some pieces of device have been sent to hospitals in Cuttack and Mumbai for clinical test, informed the students.