Loughborough design student helps develop ventilation hood that has the potential to save lives of COVID-19 patients.

[2greys]

A third-year Loughborough University student has helped develop a ventilation product for coronavirus patients in intensive care.

Dominic Leatherland, of the School of Design and Creative Arts, says the HCH-40 ‘Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)’ hood has the potential to “be a lifesaving product”.

The Product Design and Technology student, originally from Northampton, completed an industrial placement at Avon Protection, a leading manufacturer of respiratory and ballistic protection, and it was here the product was born.

The company was approached by the University College London (UCL) and asked to create a hood that would help with the shortage of ventilators and medical equipment in hospitals caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the struggle to keep up with the demand for oxygen.

Typically, patients have oxygen therapy delivered by a nose cup mask – a method that is said to waste large quantities of oxygen – and patients with severe symptoms are induced into an artificial coma and intubated in which a ventilator takes over the patients breathing. This is highly effective but is only used as a last resort due to its complex nature and invasiveness on the patient.

lboro.ac.uk/media-centre/pr...

[Sops]

That is fantastic. I am an ex- luffbra-ite and very proud of them, many wonderful discoveries were aided by Loughborough, I used to help on the cybernetics and ergonomics testing as a volunteer. Well done Dominic!

[cofdrop-UK]

That’s amazing. Well done.

Cx

[RoadRunner44]

Covid19 caused a world wide pandemic. It has been and still is horrific. Sometimes good things can arise from bad happenings. This is one of them thanks to Dominic Leatherland. .Huge congratulations to this young man. A great piece of news.

[MELNEL]

Brilliant 👍

[HighGables]

Brilliant achievement. Well done Dominic.