the.com/ventilator
A machine that helps a person breathe when their own body can no longer manage it.
means A mechanical device that pushes air into and out of the lungs of someone who can't breathe adequately on their own.
from From Latin 'ventilare' meaning to fan or wave, itself from 'ventus,' wind. The word first meant a device for circulating fresh air through a room, long before it meant a machine breathing for a patient — the lungs, it turns out, just needed their own weather system.
- iron lung origin
- 1920s polio wards used whole-body pressure chambers
- positive pressure shift
- modern machines push air in, not suck
- covid spotlight
- became a global supply-chain panic item in 2020
- weaning process
- coming off one is harder than going on