While well intentioned, I really don’t think this should be built by anyone for use on an actual patient. As mentioned in other posts, mechanical ventilation is only part of “life support” with a typical ICU admission for ARDS requiring: establishing peripheral IVs, central venous line (giant IV in neck to heart placed under sterile conditions), intubation (Which requires expertise and advanced equipment), oxygen (lots in terms of liters), medications (inotropes, sedatives, paralytics, nutritional support, bronchodilators, etc.) urine/foley catheter, the ability to suction the airway, nasogastric tube, bedside monitoring (arterial line, capnography, etc) potentially chest tube, dedicated bedside staff and access to X-rays and CT, blood work (particularly Arterial blood gas analysis for mech vent) to guide process, specialists for consults and this doesn’t include what else is needed when other systems fails (as is this case in ARDS: kidneys can fail which needs dialysis). Also, mechanical ventilation needs heat and humidification (requiring about 1L or sterile water every 12-24 hours) so you don’t jam up the airways with a mucus plug; so you need a temperature probe on the vent circuit as well.

Also, mechanical ventilation is an aerosol generating medical procedure and even with the proper filters can still expose people in the surrounding meter or so to a virus.

There’s also a great little unit that was used in Vietnam war called the Bird after the inventor - simple and clever and should be able to be cheaply manufactured or even potentially DIY but I think it required a high pressure gas source to drive the tidal volume.

Thanks for a detailed, well considered response.

> intubation

Do you think a laryngeal mask airway would useful in these kinds of situations?