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22-Year-Old Builds Homemade Ventilator Out Of Scraps Like Bottlecaps & Cardboard To Help The Less Fortunate

He wanted the machine to be inexpensive for people


InvVen cover
Images adapted from:
@brut..india and ThePrint

With the amount of COVID-19 cases still popping up worldwide, there isn’t enough medical equipment to help everyone. Some took it upon themselves to make supplies for local hospitals without the need for expensive materials.A 22-year-old innovator from Srinagar, India, created a ventilator from scrap items to show that it was possible to make affordable medical equipment from home.


He used easy-to-find items to build his machine


InvVen machine
Image adapted from:
ThePrint

An innovator named Waseem “Unique Waseem” Ahmad Nadaf recently showed a ventilator he made from cheap, miscellaneous items. Nadaf is currently the founder of a private company called LetBreathe Technology Pvt. Ltd. and making improved versions of machines at a lower cost appears to be a side project from a young age.

He reportedly built the life-saving machine out of a DVD drive, bottlecaps, a soapbox, a cardboard box, and an Ambu-bag. An Ambu-bag is a medical equipment often used by paramedics to resuscitate people by forcing air into their lungs.

Usually, you have to pump an Ambu-bag by hand, but this machine makes that unnecessary and works very simply. The DVD drive pistons against an Ambu-bag, automating the process of pumping air into someone’s lungs. 


He wanted to help those less fortunate


Nadaf’s homemade ventilator came from his belief that life-saving medical equipment should be affordable by almost anyone if we want to help.

InvVen awardNadaf in 2018, winning an award for his water purifier
Image credit: @MumkinHaiYeh

In 2018, he won an award for building a portable water purifier. Like his ventilator innovation, his water purifier is also noted as inexpensive.

InvVen mask plan
Notes on the wall in Nadaf’s room for a face mask with filter
Image adapted from: ThePrint

Nadaf calls himself a “social innovator” and has been tinkering as early as 2012.


Putting others above ourselves


We can learn a lot from Nadaf’s sensible attitude. When helping others, you have to consider their standing and if you want them to be able to help themselves.

Helping someone doesn’t need to mean having medical equipment to aid them. You can help someone in other ways and what’s possible for you. Being a part of volunteer work and even treating someone out of kindness can go a long way.

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