I saw in the news today that hospitals had to put patients on oxygen therapy and hoped for the best because they did not have enough ventilators.

What you have there wouldn't even work as oxygen therapy unless a person stood there regularly replacing canisters. Also, how do you adjust that thing? How much oxygen is the patient getting?

Starting at eight-years-old, I had to help my grandmother, who was on oxygen therapy, which is how I learned about oxygen systems.

Jeanette Isabelle

I know some of our army were specifically trained for driving tanker lorries, specifically for delivering oxygen to hospitals.

And hospitals are normally plumbed for delivering oxygen, similar to how water is distributed thoughout.

Trying to get my head around the thinking here. Are we planning to build a diy ventilator and set up an icu unit at home, or are we planning to take our ventilator to the hospital and offer it for use in their icu?

Manually operated man-portable ventilator: $20

bag-valve-mask

You would know better than me, but I have the idea that these are not practical for more than very short term use.

Never used one for more than four hours:a neonate with continuous seizure, too tiny for any of the vents at the community hospital. Waiting for the pediatric medeva to arrive. There's no theoretical limit on use except manpower. And, in truth, manpower is the major limiting factor we will face. We are building out beds in NYC pretty efficiently, but not filling those beds with covid patients. Staffing is at least part of the reason.

from the spreadsheet supplied by Ren... this design from Israel looks like it might have promise... Nursemike?

https://members.smoove.io//view.ashx?message=h44803226O122324982O219654O122394144&r=1009

It's a bvm squeezer. Clever solution to the bellows/compressor issues, but limited control over oxygen flow, room air or 100%, and limited control over inspiratory pressure and volume. Both are critical values for anything but short term ventilation. Injured lungs are stiff lungs, and can rupture from excessive pressure or volume. Room air is probably insufficient to maintain saturation, and 100% oxygen can cause damage in several different ways.
Crowd sourcing is a powerful tool for mobilizing innovative solutions to complex problems. It is also how the Royal Navy wound up with a research vessel named Boaty Mcboatface.

I rather like Boaty McBoatface!