https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/dygm3q/how-to-make-a-ventilator-diy-open-source

No single device has gotten more attention during the coronavirus pandemic than the ventilator, which gives some patients with severe COVID-19 a fighting chance to stay alive. Access to a ventilator can mean the difference between life and death, and ventilator shortages in Italy and potential shortages in the U.S. and elsewhere have become one of the most critical logistical problems to solve during the pandemic.

As every level of government wrangles with procurement and distribution of the breathing support medical devices, massive corporations like General Motors and General Electric and tech industry figures like Elon Musk are jumping into the fray to try and rapidly ramp up production or design new, easy-to-produce models. Simultaneously, efforts to open-source and build DIY ventilators have flourished. The complexity of these projects ranges from essentially automating squeezing a manual resuscitation bag, like the Israeli Air Force’s AmboVent, to adaptations of existing medical devices undertaken by hospital workers. Gaming computer manufacturers have created prototype ventilators, university professors say they have retrofitted KitchenAid mixers to make ventilators, and hackers have jailbroken CPAP machines to turn them into makeshift ventilators. Enterprising doctors and nurses have found ways to use ventilators on more than one patient. Medical device manufacturer Medtronic even made a contribution to open source efforts, releasing specifications and documents for its PB 560 ventilator, a model originally manufactured in 2010.