Creative minds work to develop cost-effective ventilator prototype

With each prototype, the group improves the material quality and function

SAN ANTONIO – Some of San Antonio’s top creative minds are trying to come up with a way to build a low cost, effective, easy to make emergency ventilator that can be used should San Antonio have a shortage of the medical devices during the coronavirus pandemic.

Drue Placette, of CANopener Labs, has been working with a team, which includes computer software students, doctors, and architect and San Antonio District 1 Councilman Roberto Trevino, to come up with a prototype.

“The whole goal was to make it so that it can be rapidly made, rapidly deployed,” Placette said. “They're now cut out of aluminum. It’s all stuff you can source locally.”

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It’s the fifth prototype the group has designed. With each prototype , the group improves the material quality and function. They’ve been working on it for a week.

Trevino said the project shows the passion of San Antonians who want to make a difference in their communities.

“We’re looking at an accelerated approval for limited use, so we’re working to create a fast track,” he said.

The team will present the prototype to University Health Systems Office of Institutional Review Board in the next few days. They are already in talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in hopes of getting emergency approval.

The approval will be based on what happens in the meeting with UHS that will determine how this project moves forward. But Trevino said the machine can be made with a few hundred dollars in parts and within a few weeks with local companies.

“We need to work with the hospitals and other entities that can help us determine what that number will look like,” Trevino said.

The group has been working nonstop at CANopener Labs headquarters, making sacrifices to stay away from their families but still be able to work on this project. Some of them Trevino said have been sleeping in the office to protect their families.

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About the Authors:

Patty Santos joined the KSAT 12 News team in July 2017. She has a proven track record of reporting on hard-hitting news that affects the community.

Before starting KSAT in 2017, Lee was a photojournalist at KENS 5, where he won a Lone Star Emmy in 2014 for Best Weather Segment. In 2009 and 2010 Lee garnered first-place awards with the Texas Association of Broadcasters for Best Investigative Series in College Station, as well as winning first place for Staff Photojournalism in 2011 at KBTX.