The respirators 'made in' Andalusia: a final year project of 30 years ago that gives air against the Covid-19

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Investigators around the world work tirelessly to try to equip citizens with weapons to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. There are those who focus on the search for a vaccine, those who explore effective treatments and those who choose to create new instruments that avoid the dreaded collapse of the health system. In this last group is a group of doctors, scientists and engineers from Malaga who in just one week have created a respirator that could be an alternative to avoid the lack of these devices in hospitals. A project that will be facilitated by all the community or country that wishes it and that curiously emerged from a final-year project carried out three decades ago.

The team of experts that created it is expected to carry out the human test in the next few hours before an external ethical and scientific committee certifies the suitability of the prototype and it can start manufacturing it online. A step that will be the culmination of a time trial job that, however, had its genesis 30 years ago, when a sixth-year medical student, with a reputation for handyman, accepted the challenge of a colleague.

That young man was Ignacio Díaz de Tuesta, a vascular surgeon at the La Paz hospital in Madrid, currently on duty at the Malaga Regional Office. Remember that Gonzalo Varela, a colleague from October 12, "had a very complicated case" to which conventional respirators did not respond. "Since he knew he had a knack with manual labor, he suggested that I build one that could solve the problem." And so he did: with irrigation valves, an electrical circuit and another series of common parts, he made a prototype that helped his companion and on which he based his end-of-degree thesis for which he was awarded and congratulated by the then King Juan Carlos.

It was 1988 and, since then, the work had remained stored in a drawer, until the outbreak of the pandemic has put the Spanish health system on the verge of collapse . Díaz de la Tuesta sensed that its creation, applying a series of modifications, could be useful, so on Wednesday the 18th he transferred the idea to his colleague Miguel Ángel Prieto, intensivist and clinical coordinator of the Regional hospital. They quickly verified that the possibility of creating their own respirator was feasible and they involved José Luis Guerrero Orriach, anesthetist and intensivist at the Virgen de la Victoria hospital center, and Gonzalo Varela Simó, thoracic surgeon and scientific advisor at the University Hospital of Salamanca.

The first prototype: Málaga Respira 1

Everyone believed in its viability, but it was necessary to have experts capable of realizing what at the time was a design on a whiteboard. That is when the engineers Víctor Muñoz and Carlos Pérez, professors, professors at the University of Malaga (UMA) and with experience in the field of engineering applied to health entered the scene. They would be in charge of lighting the project following the parameters set by health professionals and programming the automation.

After many hours of work, and under the coordination of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Malaga (Ibima), this sum of talents created its first prototype two days later: Malaga Breathes 1. "On Sunday -day 22- it was tested on an artificial lung "Ignacio Díaz de Tuesta tells EL MUNDO, who explains that a day later" the test was carried out on animals . "

The patient was a pig who was assisted at all times by veterinarians during the sedation and resuscitation process. "He was connected to the prototype for 24 hours and everything was phenomenal. When they woke them up, the animal had its reflexes intact and was very well," he still remembers with enthusiasm.

The doctor clarifies that in the last hours the Malaga Respira 3 prototype has been completed, which will be the one that will be used in the human test and the one that is presented to the external expert committee that must determine its correct operation. Once these steps have been taken, which have accelerated considerably due to the severity of the situation, their manufacturing will begin.

Although they already have enough elements to make the first 80, the Andalusian Executive has not specified when the respirators will arrive at the hospitals. On the other hand, the Minister of Health and Families, Jesús Aguirre, has indicated that 200 may be made per month after announcing that Fujitsu will be in charge of its production . Precisely, this Friday, at the headquarters that the company has in Malaga, the last tests were carried out on the device prior to the final test.

Víctor Muñoz details that -initially- "a manual assembly line" will be launched, which already has enough elements to make 80 respirators. Díaz de la Tuesta adds that the simplicity of the contraption "makes it very easy to assemble" and that only two people are required to do so, "they do not have to be experts in this area". The projection is for one to be manufactured every two hours.

David Gómez, from the Communication and Fundrising department of Ibima, provides another very interesting key to the project, such as the fact that the device is made with "very accessible" parts and materials and that they are not the ones commonly used by respirators, which greatly reduces the needs to go to the foreign market to get supplies.

This facilitates that in other communities and countries they can benefit from this initiative made in Malaga, and whose details will be made public by the Andalusian Government so that anyone can replicate it. "Thus offering a real alternative to current approved respirators found in intensive care units for seriously ill patients with the symptoms of Covid-19 disease," said the autonomous administration, who pointed out that these new devices will have alarm mechanisms. in case of blackout or other incident.

Muñoz, who in 2004 participated in the creation of ISA, the first robot capable of performing laparoscopic surgery, recognizes the "vertigo" he has felt during a project that has been the "simplest of my life, but from which I I feel more proud "; to which Dr. Ignacio Díaz de Tuesta adds: "I hope it doesn't have to be used." That would be a good sign.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Andalusia
• Malaga
• Coronavirus
• Covid 19

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