By nature, paisas think big. So building a ventilator also meant creating a supply chain for parts and inventing an entire production line from scratch. They enlisted the Colombian embassies in the U.S., Canada, India, China, and Japan for help sourcing parts that couldn’t be produced domestically. In honor of the “unique ecosystem” that birthed the project, saidthe head of Ruta N, they branded their venture InnspiraMED—a mash-up of Spanish terms for “innovation,” “inspiration,” and “medicine.
Nevertheless, what Toro and his chat buddies were proposing was not only risky but almost unimaginable: a working ventilator in a month or less. Ventilators are complex and sensitive, super difficult to construct—as GM kept tellingand all who would listen before Trump invoked the Defense Production Act and ordered the automaker to start manufacturing them anyway.
The 3D-printed acrylic box protects medical professionals from inhaling aerosolized virus when intubating patients.Hernandez’s team at the University of Antioquia includes four newly minted Ph.D.’s in mechanical ventilation, who have been living on campus and sleeping four hours or fewer a night. Among his team’s ingenious inventions is a 3D-printed acrylic box with two arm holes that protects medical professionals from inhaling aerosolized virus when they intubate patients.