Majed Berro, a Syrian teacher and inventor, has created a portable respirator from recycled electric motors to try to assist in the government in its response to the coronavirus crisis.
Speaking to the Syrian Arab News Agency, Berro said his device, which he named ‘COVID 2020’, features a small form factor, and weighs just 8 kg, enabling it to be easily moved from room to room in a hospital, or even placed in an ambulance and delivered to a patient’s home.
The device, which features a number of safety features, including an inhalation/exhalation pattern that can be regulated depending on the age of the patient, can be plugged into the mains, or operate off a battery. Brro says it cost him just 50,000 Syrian pounds, equivalent to just $100, to build the prototype device, and took a month’s time.
The inventor has submitted his respirator to the patent office for testing.
Berro, a resident of the Damascus countryside, works as a teacher, but also invents gadgets during his spare time. In 2019, he received a patent for a new electronic talking educational device called the ‘Brro Sham 1’.
The Syrian government has lashed out at the US and the European Union repeatedly in recent months over their refusal to ease restrictions against Damascus amid the ongoing fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The country, whose health care system has been severely strained by the near decade-long war between the government and an assortment of terrorists and rebel groups, faces shortages of even basic medical supplies, with many major population centers lacking even a single ventilator.
Source: Sputnik
