The use of dual oxygen concentrator system for mechanical ventilation during COVID-19 pandemic in Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract

Sabah in Malaysian Borneo is among the Malaysian states which reported a high number of detected COVID-19 cases during the current pandemic. Due to geographical challenges and limited resources, clinicians developed novel strategies for managing patients. The use of a dual oxygen concentrator system for mechanical ventilation is one of the innovations developed by retrieval team members from the Emergency Department (ED) of the Sabah Women and Children’s Hospital. Due to conditions requiring isolation of patients suspected of or positive for COVID-19, high-risk patients were treated in an ED extension area that lacked central wall oxygen. Direct access to oxygen tanks became the only viable option, but ensuring a continuous supply was laborious. The novel setup described within this paper has been used on intubated patients in the ED extension area with moderate to high ventilator settings successfully. This simple setup, designed to meet the limited resources within a pandemic environment, needed only a turbine-driven ventilator, two oxygen concentrators, a 3-way connector, and three oxygen tubing. The application of this setup could potentially save more critically ill patients who are being managed in resource-limited conditions such as in smaller district hospitals or out in the field.