BOGOTA, Colombia – The device called Heron resembles many other enthusiasts that are used to treat patients with COVID-19. There is a screen in the most sensitive of a steel box that presents the amount of oxygen pumped into a person’s lungs and a plastic tube that delivers it to the patient.
But the device costs about $4,000, one-fifth of the value of enthusiasts imported from China, and is manufactured in Colombia, where some hospitals have been hit by coronavirus patients.
Engineers hope that the newly initiated emergency deployment of enthusiasts can save many lives and turn Colombia into a pioneer in cheap devices for COVID-19 patients.
“It’s not just value that’s important,” said Julian Echeverry, professor of mechanical engineering at La Sabana University in Bogota, who helped design the Heron, “but how temporarily we can take those machines to hospitals.”
The herons have not yet obtained full approval from Colombian regulators, who insist that they will first have to be effectively tested on at least one hundred patients. But a new law allows doctors to use herons if their hospital runs out of traditional machinery and has the consent of patients or their families.
This scenario happened recently at the Cardio-Child Foundation in Bogota, a personal clinic whose 55 extensive care beds were fully or almost occupied in August.
Dr. Fabio Varon, a pneumologist, said he had used Heron this month in a 50-year-old COVID-19 patient with severe lung damage. The hospital ran out of traditional fans when the guy was transferred to the emergency room.
“With the permission of his relatives, we put the patient (to a heron) in contact for 3 days,” Varon said. “The fan didn’t cause us any problems and the patient is recovering now.”
Colombia is at a critical level in the pandemic, with the government registering around 8,000 new cases and three hundred deaths each day. The country has reported more than 500,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, of which about 3.5% require hospitalization in extensive care units.
President Ivan Duque’s administration has created new extensive care sets and purchased more than 6,300 enthusiasts since April, usually from China at a cost of approximately $22,000 each, according to the Ministry of Health.
But less than a portion of these enthusiasts have arrived and settled in hospitals, according to the ministry, even when the number of other people in need is increasing.
In the capital, Bogota, extensive care sets are lately 77% complete according to the municipal government. In remote spaces with fewer hospital beds, the scenario is more difficult. The occupancy rate of extensive care units reached one hundred percent in July and August in the chocó and Caquetá jungle states, forcing hospitals to send patients with severe lung injuries to remote cities.
As in other countries facing problems, this has triggered a race to build reliable, cost-effective and temporarily produced local fans.
The University of La Sabana began operating at the Heron in April, with professors from its engineering and medical schools leading the project.
After testing a pilot edition in pigs, the university began mass production in July with the help of Challenger, a company that manufactures washing machines and televisions.
They built more than two hundred fans, with a total of 50 games sent to hospitals in Bogota, Chocó and the eastern state of Arauca.
Mónica Murcia, assignment coordinator for the Colombia Solidarity Foundation, said several local corporations had pledged to produce six hundred more enthusiasts once they were approved by regulators.
The University of Antioquia, meanwhile, designed a low-load-like fan with that of a medical materials corporation and sent more than 90 teams to hospitals in Medellin, Cartagena and the border state of Norte de Santander. These are assembled through a company that manufactures dishwashers.
Luis Alfredo Paipa, professor of advertising engineering at the University of La Sabana, said the Heron is less expensive to produce than most advertising enthusiasts due to its more fundamental design.
Like enthusiasts built in the 1960s, the Heron uses circular dials connected to electronic circuits that the amount and frequency of oxygen pumps to patients’ lungs. Sabana says it has reduced prices by not having to invest in creating new software for its enthusiasts.
“It’s like using a Renault four instead of a BMW,” Paipa said, pointing to four heron-type plastic dials that are used to oxygen levels. “Both can guide you. But one is based on mechanical characteristics while the other works on a computer.”
Cheap enthusiasts also have fewer breathing modes than traditional machines, said Dr. Luis Fernando Giraldo, a pneumologist who helped design the Heron. For example, it has the ability to perform controlled stress ventilation.
While enthusiasts undergo clinical trials, the university sends more to Colombia’s small towns. Engineers also control fan operation at other altitudes, with other atmospheric pressures. The capital of Colombia is located at an altitude of more than 8600 feet (2600 meters), while other cities are at sea level.
“We have to be prepared,” Echeverry said. “Today, it’s become difficult to import fans.”
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