Custom PC manufacturing brand Maingear announced their new manufacturing focus in building high-quality emergency ventilator for individuals affected by COVID-19 and its symptoms. Looking to produce its products just “twenty minutes outside of New York City,” the company quickly decided to shift their liquid cooling and PC build resources for the LIV – a breathing apparatus which filters out exhaled COVID-19 particles from patients. The filters for patients also prevent the virus from spreading airborne to others.
In a release, Maingear claims its solution is priced at a quarter of current ventilators on the market while its quantity is enough to support busier hospitals during the pandemic. The devices are also looking to address growing shortages of equipment as infected patients continue getting treatment.
A prototype LIV showed a blue shell with a tube which is attached to the mouth. A secondary screen shows information around the patient’s symptoms while assessing COVID-19 levels based on saliva and breathing count. The units also include easy-to-use information for new users while being intuitive for front-line health workers. “Each unit has preset standard values for use by untrained personnel, as well as dedicated software that is controlled via touch screen interface, giving access to fine adjustments in addition to the manual regulation controls on the device,” wrote Maingear.
“Something had to be done,” said Wallace Santos, adding the company created its first prototype shortly after realizing the pandemic grew worldwide.
“Besides the lack of medical supplies and equipment, we think there will be a shortage of medical professionals who can operate these devices especially in field hospitals, so we also made it incredibly simple to use. Now we need help getting the word out to the appropriate people,” he said.
The company continued stating hospitals could need up to 960,000 LIV units for patients while the American Hospital Association stated 30,000 are needed for New York alone in the next few weeks. For Maingear, the units are also open for shipping to help international health services during the pandemic.