Much of the language around the news and social media in recent weeks has been pushing the language of “flattening the curve”. While it can be annoying to hear over and over, this is important to understand.

Essentially, healthcare services (hospitals and such) have a limited number of supplies available at any one point. If you bring a lot of people all at once, they will be overwhelmed. If you trickle a similar amount of people in, the hospital can keep up. Why does this matter? One of the most important pieces of machinery during this pandemic is called a ventilator.

Ventilators allow patients who can’t properly breathe to get fresh oxygen into their system. That’s why this doctor’s invention is genius.

As COVID-19 continues to spread, one of the common symptoms is complications in the respiratory system. For some, this means difficulty breathing. That what makes ventilators so important for the outbreak. More people with the virus means more people who need help breathing. The bad news? Ventilators are in short supply.

In a rural Canadian hospital, one doctor got inventive with his ventilators.

Dr. Alain Gauthier is an anesthetist at Perth and Smith Falls District Hospital. His small, rural hospital was ill-equipped to tackle the possible strain of an influx of those with COVID-19. The issue was that his team only had one ventilator on site.

Combining inspiration and experience, Dr. Gauthier started modifying his ventilators.

Not just anyone could do this! In 2006, an idea was proposed by doctors Greg Neyman and Charlene Babcock that would double the capacity of a ventilator. While never tested on the fly the idea worked in theory – that is, until 2017. With the Las Vegas mass shooting, there was an immediate need for more ventilators. Babcock and Neyman’s idea was successfully tested, saving many lives.

Following a YouTube video posted by Babcock, Dr. Gauthier got to work.

With ten minutes and a little extra tubing, Dr. Gauthier had doubled the capacity of one of the ventilators. With a Ph. D. in respiratory mechanics, he knew what he was doing! As long as the two patients have a similar lung capacity and body size, the contraption works excellently.

Preparing as a last resort, something is always better than nothing.

Circumstances are not ideal, Dr. Gauthier recognizes.

“If it comes to last resort, I’m prepared to use it.”

So in ten minutes the evil genius who is one of our GP anaesthetists (with a PhD in diaphragmatic mechanics) increased our rural hospitals ventilator capacity from one to nine!!! pic.twitter.com/yNmuCCDbWd

— alan drummond (@alandrummond2) March 17, 2020

Alan Drummond, a colleague of Dr. Gauthier, called his friend an “Evil Genius”!

Drummond wrote on Twitter:

“So in ten minutes the evil genius who is one of our GP anesthetists (with a PhD in diaphragmatic mechanics) increased our rural hospitals ventilator capacity from one to nine!!!”

Build one large central ventilator , multiple branches/lines with one ways values/regulators to regulate pressure and prevent mixing.

— 108.4-74 (@MG42bonesaw) March 20, 2020

Elon Musk got involved in the conversation!

After looking at the system, Musk concluded that it could one day lead to a more effective and efficient ventilator! Musk also announced recently that his company, Tesla, would be making ventilators at their New York plant to help with the effort.

Acting humbly, Dr. Gauthier just wants to be able to help people, no credit needed.

Not wanting credit for his invention, he said:

“A lot of work is being done by pretty much everyone,” he stressed.

With things moving quicker than ever before, the entire country is bracing for what is to come. With cooperation and collective wisdom, we will get through this like we always do.

Working together can make all the difference.

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Source: The Mind Unleashed