{"id":6996,"date":"2020-06-07T16:15:54","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T16:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=6996"},"modified":"2022-03-29T13:30:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T13:30:03","slug":"rapid-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=6996","title":{"rendered":"Rapid Response"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\r\n

It was March 22. Chris Spiker didn\u2019t have to guess which garage was Michael Zabala\u2019s. On a normal Sunday afternoon, he might have thought he was looking at someone gearing up to mow the lawn. But during a pandemic? The guy in the medical mask bent over a work table covered in wires and tubes was a dead giveaway.<\/p>\r\n

Spiker was finally heading home from his ICU shift at East Alabama Medical Center. He lived in Zabala\u2019s neighborhood, so Glenn Wood, an anesthesiologist at the hospital consulting with Zabala on the RE-InVENT project, had asked him to go check it out \u2014 to make sure he wasn\u2019t seeing things in the video Zabala had just texted.<\/p>\r\n

Spiker parked on the street. He was still in scrubs. He introduced himself. No one shook hands. Tom Burch, a senior lecturer in Auburn\u2019s Department of Mechanical Engineering, kept his distance, a bottle of sanitizer dangling from his belt. He\u2019s in his 60s. Zabala, an assistant mechanical engineering professor is only in his mid-30s, but he\u2019d been just as cautious as Burch. He\u2019s taught on the biomechanics of respiration in his Auburn University Biomechanical Engineering (AUBE) lab. He knows how lungs work. He was learning how the virus worked.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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\"\"\r\n
From left to right: Michael Zabala, Taylor Burch and Tom Burch.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

Zabala got to it. He rattled off the Cliff\u2019s Notes from the weekend, about the team\u2019s desire to help mitigate any potential respiratory treatment equipment shortages in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, about Burch\u2019s suggestion to incorporate a CPAP machine, about the parts needed, about meeting Wood at Texaco that morning to grab some tubing and the test lung. Then it was time.<\/p>\r\n

Burch flipped the switch. Click. The test lung inflated.<\/p>\r\n

Click. It deflated. Click. Inflated, deflated. Click, click, click, click.<\/p>\r\n

It had rained that morning. The sun was finally out. The subdivision was just coming to life. Moms pushing strollers looked over. Dads on golf carts stared.<\/p>\r\n

So did Spiker.<\/p>\r\n

Click, click.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDoes it have adjustable pressure settings?\u201d Spiker said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cUp to 5-25 centimeters,\u201d Burch said.<\/p>\r\n

Click, click.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOK, it maybe needs to be about five at minimum, because that\u2019s the baseline to overcome the tube that\u2019s in their mouth. And you can adjust the rate, too?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOh, yeah,\u201d Zabala said.<\/p>\r\n

Click, click. Click, click.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, guys,\u201d Spiker said, \u201cI think you just created your own pressure-controlled ventilator.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Unforgettable<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
During an April 3 test at Auburn\u2019s College of Veterinary Medicine\u2019s Vaughan Large Animal Teaching Hospital, the RE-InVENT kept a 200-pound goat perfectly ventilated.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n

The goat won’t remember April 3, 2020.<\/p>\r\n

Zabala, Burch and the other Auburn engineers behind the RE-InVENT<\/a> will never forget it.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe had gone from concept to a successful test on a test lung in just two days,\u201d Zabala, a 2007 Auburn mechanical engineering graduate, said of the device, which effectively converts a CPAP machine into a safe, emergency alternative to conventional ventilators. \u201cBut it was still just awesome to see it perform so well on the real thing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Burch, who earned his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in mechanical engineering from Auburn in 1979 and 1982 respectively, agreed.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe were pretty sure it would work,\u201d said Burch, who first proposed incorporating\u202fcontinuous positive airway pressure to simulate a ventilator. \u201cI use a CPAP machine, and it does 90% of what a ventilator does.\u201d<\/p>\r\n