St. Louis-based Allied Healthcare has released a line of ventilators designed for mass casualty situations. During natural or man-made disasters, hospitals may be overwhelmed by the sheer number of patients needing life support, and clinical staff typically not qualified to provide life support may be required to assist. Additionally, electric power may become unavailable for stand-alone mobile ventilators that can operate for extended periods of time and demand continuous electricity. The Allied Mass Casualty Ventilators were designed for such situations, and they feature simple operation, long battery life, and are able to operate without external gas connections.
“If you can’t breathe nothing else matters,” said Jack Dabrowski, Allied’s National Product Manager. “Early responders and medical providers have six minutes to deliver ventilation to people. Our engineers have created compressor-driven ventilators with long-life batteries that are completely mobile with no need for electricity or gas. These Mass Casualty Ventilators can be acquired for as little as $3,000 per unit, as opposed to $30,000 for a typical hospital ventilator. As we have learned from events in the past, such as Katrina, a mass casualty event is twofold and has to be planned for accordingly. The initial event, whether it is a flood, tornado, terrorist attack, etc, must be met with ventilators and equipment that can be deployed immediately and utilized in a disaster situation. This type of equipment must be rugged, easy to use, and battery powered. The result of this initial event is a patient surge to surrounding area hospitals. These hospitals and medical facilities may not have been damaged by the event, but they must be prepared to handle the inevitable patient surge that’s accompanied by a mass casualty situation. These hospitals must be able to deploy efficient, simple-to-use ventilators that can be considered force multipliers, as their trained respiratory staff will soon be outnumbered and must rely on non-respiratory staff (nurses, EMTs) to assist in mechanical ventilation.”
Press release: New Mobile Ventilator Technology Eliminates Respiratory Challenges During Emergencies …
Product page: Allied Healthcare Mass Casualty Ventilators …