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Realistic Chest Rise Mechanism
During my co-op at IngMar Medical in Pittsburgh, PA, one of my main projects was modifying one of the respiratory training manikins so that the chest rise function during breathing appeared more realistic to the user.
The problem was that since the rib plate of the manikin was one large piece of plastic extending over the left and right lung, the chest rise was very subtle and the user could not distinguish between a pneumothorax state and a normal state, since both sides rose simultaneously.
The first step was to talk to the respiratory therapists on staff at IngMar. They gave me insight on what a chest rise should look like in a patient with normal respiratory activity, a patient with right pneumothorax, and a patient with left pneumothorax.
I then used CAD to create a visual prototype for the modification. I decided to create two slits in the chest plate so the left and right sides could rise independently.
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I sent the prototype and corresponding drawing to the company that manufactures the manikins so they could send us a physical prototype.
Here is the result of my preliminary changes.
To make the pneumothorax more dramatic, I also implemented the changes shown below.
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