In this pandemic situation, the most substantial condition the world currently facing is the shortage of ventilators. Hospitals worldwide are currently running out of ventilators due to the COVID-19 outbreak. A ventilator is a machine that automatically provides mechanical ventilation by delivering breathable air into and out of the patient lungs. It is used for the person that is impotent to breathe properly.

To overcome the shortage of ventilators, a team at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) developed a low-cost ventilator that could help to meet the demand of ventilators worldwide. The team called MIT E-Vent (Emergency-ventilator) was formed in the emergency on March 12 in response to the rapid spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The members of MIT were brought together for the project done a decade ago in the MIT class 2.75.

According to the MIT News, students and faculty working in consultation with local physicians designed a simple ventilator device that could be built with about $100 worth of parts. This simple and inexpensive ventilator has a hand-operated plastic pouch called a bag-valve resuscitator, or Ambu bag. It can be operated manually by a medical professional or emergency technician, to provide breaths to a patient in critical situations like cardiac arrest. Till then, a tube is inserted into the patient’s airway, as with a hospital ventilator, but then the pumping of air into the lungs is done by squeezing and releasing the flexible pouch. This cheap and effective ventilator developed by MIT Team will overcome the shortage of ventilators worldwide.