Dingley references the 1952 Copenhagen polio epidemic, during which medical students were required to manually ventilate patients in six to eight hour shifts, 24 hours a day. He notes a similar outbreak could lead to devastating numbers of preventable deaths if emergency plans are not updated. "When I looked at the U.K. pandemic plan it was rather depressing," Dingley says, "Basically, hospitals might cope with 25 percent of the patients they get and the others have to cope for themselves."

He explains, "It just became apparent if something like this developed -- if there's a situation of chaos where normal rules don't apply -- could you mass produce a cheap ventilator, just taking back to the minimum to keep someone alive? If you've got patients dying in the street outside of the hospital, what's the minimum we need in a catastrophe?"


A mechanical lung was used to test the device, which is not yet on the market. However, Dingley suspects commercial interest in the prototypes will pick up in North America before U.K. hospitals implement a change in the pandemic plan.

"The commercial problem is most hospitals can't just buy 100 ventilators and keep them in the basement. You're spending money on something that may not happen," he explains, "If it has potential in any commercial sense, I guess it would be in the U.S. The U.S. is a lot more into stockpiling medical equipment in case of emergencies... whereas other countries hope it won't happen to them."

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