Researchers around the world are stepping up their creativity to fight the coronavirus. In Toulouse, CNES engineers have developed "flow dividers", small parts attached to the outlet of the respirators, to double the capacities of these devices. Doctors at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris have validated the device and have already ordered around fifty.
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A device that works for two people of the same morphology
The principle of this "flow divider": a Y-shaped tube, which distributes the air flow to two or even three patients in intensive care. At the beginning, it was doctors in the intensive care unit at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris who called on CNES engineers. In a few days, they designed this part on their 3D printer.
"We cannot operate on two people who have two very different types of physique. We cannot put Laurel on Hardy ( sic )", specifies Jean-Yves Le Gall, the director of CNES interviewed by Europe 1. "On the other hand, if you have two people with the same morphology, their breathing needs are almost identical. There, the same respirator can intervene, and therefore we can connect two or three people to the same respirator, "he continues.
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The device must still be approved
Doctors have validated the prototype and have already ordered fifty. The mechanism has yet to be approved by Care, the scientific committee that advises the government on the coronavirus crisis. The first patients could benefit from these "flow dividers" next week.
The idea is that CNES will then put the plans online, so that all those who have a 3D printer produce them for hospitals.