What is the difference between a respirator and a ventilator?

[b2bailey]

I'm asking this AFTER googling the two words.

The news has mentioned a potential shortage of hospital equipment, Are they referring to the machine that I call "life support" ? Or is there another type of treatment beyond needing to have oxygen?

Here is the underlying reason I ask. For those of us who have End of Life instructions that say "do not hook me up" or "no heroic measures" -- would that include in hospital treatment for Coronavirus?

If yes, I am wondering if that is part of the reason the death toll at the Seattle area convalescent hospital was so high -- possibly many had ' DNR' on file?

 

[MULTIZ321]

What is the Difference Between a Ventilator and a
Respirator? I Reference.com.

What Is the Difference Between a Ventilator and a Respirator?

Although the terms are often used interchangeably when talking about the medical device that makes it easier for patients to breathe, ventilators and respirators are two different things. According...

www.reference.com

.


Don't know the answer to your DNR question.

Richard

 

[b2bailey]

Thanks for the reference.
It would seem that press references are incorrectly using the term respirator.

 

[isisdave]

Here's a little more about ventilators, if you're interested. Just before retiring, I worked as a software quality engineer for Covidien, now part of Medtronic, who make Puritan-Bennett and Newport ventilators.

The ventilators you see on doctor shows are mostly critical-care "vents." They cost between $12k and $30k depending on bells, whistles, and software options. You can buy used ones on eBay, which is something I didn't know!

There are other, smaller ones, with far fewer options, mostly used for transporting patients. They cost more like $4k, and would be perfectly adequate for a week. There are midsized, rugged ones, suitable for rapid export to combat awful viruses.

Our critical care vents were made in batches of about 40 in Galway, Ireland. It took about two weeks for the build, and about a day each to test and package one. They are usually unpacked and retested by the manufacturer's field reps at the customer site.

Guess where some of the parts came from ... yes, China.

The big players in the field are Medtronic (under the Puritan Bennett brand), GE Healthcare and Allied Healthcare in the U.S., and Hamilton Medical, Getinge, Drägerwerk and Philips Healthcare. There are quite a few smaller companies too.

 

[Passepartout]

I use a V-PAP to sleep with. Think CPAP on steroids. The 'V' stands for ventilator. It runs at a good bit higher pressure and will actually inflate my lungs, and automatically switches between 'incoming' and 'outgoing' air while I sleep. It technically is a medical device, but is designed for home use, not hospital circumstances. I can also plug an oxygen concentrator into the hose just where it goes into the mask if I need more O2. Under the current circumstances, having it along with some other underlying age and health conditions gives me an additional bit of peace of mind. Mine is a ResMed, made in Australia.

Jim