By Mabinty M. Kamara
Students from the Engineering Department at Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone (USL), have built a homemade mechanical ventilator. The lifesaving machine, which has been named ‘Leone Vent’, was unveiled on Monday at the college’s campus on Mount Aureole.
The project also had technical inputs from the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), as well and the Medical Equipment Technician at the Connaught Hospital in Freetown.
FBC and COMAHS are two of three constituent colleges that make up the USL.
This project was sponsored by an Alumnus of FBC, Ing. Amara Sorie Tunkara.
Officials of the university say the initiative is part of the college’s own effort in support of the country’s battle against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
During the unveiling ceremony of the ventilator, the leader of the eight student scientists who manufactured the machine, Alfred Mbayo, a fourth year Mechanical and Maintenance Engineering student, said they came up with the idea because of the high demand posed by the pandemic and the potential pressure this held for Sierra Leone’s health system.
“The outbreak of COVID-19 has been a wake-up call to the world and Sierra Leone to be specific. It has brought us to the realization that except we solve our own problems nobody can solve it for us. The western world is struggling with COVID-19. We are seeing how medical infrastructure are being brought to their knees and we are in crucial need of mechanical ventilators. Although they are life supportive, they are very expensive for common Sierra Leoneans and even the government securing hundreds of it is not possible because it is nothing less than $10, 000 for one,” Mbayo explained.
This is the second prototype ventilator to have come from the USL, after the first one manufactured by Professor Edmond Nuni, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), the third constituent college of the USL.
Mbayo said it took them one and a half month to build their prototype, noting that they built a safety protocol within the machine which will allow it to be operated manually in case of any malfunction.
“A trained respiratory therapist can simply attach the Ambu bag through the Manual resuscitation inlet without detaching the patient’s breathing circuit. During the manual operation, the therapist can read the patient’s pressure gauge whiles maintaining a constant operation by hand,” he further explained.
The ventilator has also been built to use room temperature and oxygen supply. The machine can also be moved and used in an ambulance. In the case of a power cut, it can be run on backup power for an hour before its next recharge.
The total cost involved in building this ventilator was Le18.5 million ($1,850), according to Mbayo. He said with their experience, if resources were available, they could build ten ventilators every two weeks.
Student Union President at FBC, Augustine Bona, hailed the brilliance of his colleagues and praised them for what they accomplished.
“For far too long we have been asking questions that we ourselves have answers to. I believe in my fellow students so much that I believe we can do whatever we intend to do if we have the backing of the college authorities, the government and the private sector,” Bona stated at the unveiling ceremony.
“What you have done here today is just the start of what we are going to do in one hundred years and what we have been known for. Fourah Bay College is great and Fourah Bay College is the Athens of West Africa,” he added.
Professor Lawrence Kamara, Deputy Vice Chancellor of FBC, also heaped praises on the student scientists and urged them to do more. He noted that as engineering students they had a lot to contribute to the country’s development.
Professor Mohamed Samai, Deputy Vice Chancellor of COMAHS, said with their innovation, the students had striven to meet the three aspects of a university, which are teaching, community service and research.
“Identifying problems in communities and coming up with solutions is what you have just done, because the ventilator is not only useful to COVID patients, it’s something that is useful for patients in critical conditions. It’s something that is useful even for normal operations in operating theaters,” he said.
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