Majed Brro, a Syrian teacher and inventor, has created a portable ventilator from recycled electric motors to try to assist in the government in its response to the coronavirus crisis.
Speaking to the Syrian Arab News Agency, Brro said his device, which he named ‘COVID 2020’, features a small form factor, and weighs just 8 kg, enabling it to be easily moved from room to room in a hospital, or even placed in an ambulance and delivered to a patient’s home.
The device, which includes a number of safety features, such as an inhalation/exhalation pattern that can be regulated depending on the age of the patient, can be plugged into the mains, or operate off a battery. Brro says it cost him just 50,000 Syrian pounds, equivalent to just $100, to build the prototype device, and took a month’s work.
The inventor has submitted his ventilator to the patent office for testing.
Brro, a resident of the Damascus countryside, works as a teacher, but also invents gadgets during his spare time. In 2019, he received a patent for an electronic educational device called the ‘Brro Sham 1’.
‘Medical Terrorism’
The Syrian government has lashed out at the US and the European Union repeatedly in recent months over their refusal to ease restrictions against Damascus amid the ongoing fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The country, whose health care system has been severely strained by the near decade-long war between the government and an assortment of terrorists and rebel groups, faces shortages of even basic medical supplies, with many major population centers lacking even a single ventilator.
Last month, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari declared that US sanctions prevent the country from providing its citizens with adequate medical assistance, while the aid provided under exemptions only supporting terrorist groups in the country’s rebel-controlled north.
According to the ambassador, foreign companies fear signing contracts with Syrian medical institutions out of fear of secondary sanctions, which are unlawful, since they are not endorsed by the Security Council.
Syrian ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad has echoed Jaafari’s concerns, saying US policy against Syria amid the COVID-19 pandemic amounts to “medical terrorism.”
In April, the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights urged Washington to lift its economic sanctions against multiple countries, including Syria, to allow for the unhindered delivery of medical equipment to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
In late May, the European Council prolonged its sanctions against Damascus until June 1, 2021 while promising to “continue its support to the Syrian people.”
