Russia suspends use of ventilator type that reportedly killed 6 in hospital fires: report
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Russia has suspended the use of a ventilator type manufactured after April 1, a state healthcare regulator announced on Wednesday. The decision comes after the breathing machines reportedly caused two hospital fires that killed six people amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple reports.
Moscow had been examining the safety of the Aventa-M ventilator that reportedly short-circuited and killed five coronavirus patients within an intensive care unit at St. George's Hospital in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, according to Reuters. A fire ignited by the same model of ventilator killed one person in a hospital in Moscow on Saturday, a law enforcement source told TASS.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The ventilators are working to their limits. Preliminary indications are that it was overloaded and caught fire, and that was the cause," a source at the city's emergency department told the Interfax news agency, according to the BBC.
5 CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS ON VENTILATORS DIE IN RUSSIAN HOSPITAL FIRE, 150 EVACUATED: REPORT
A Russian Emergency Situation worker attends the scene of a fire at St. George Hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, May 12, 2020. A fire at St. George Hospital has killed five coronavirus patients. Russian emergency officials said all five had been put on ventilators. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
The country's healthcare watchdog said it would check the quality and safety of the ventilators at the two hospitals, including the Aventa-M, which Russia sent to the U.S. in April to help with the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The ventilators were reportedly delivered to New York and New Jersey but were never deployed at hospitals, said Janet Montesi, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“The flattening curve meant these ventilators were not needed,” she added, according to the news organization.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An engineering plant east of Moscow confirmed the Aventa-M was one of its products supplied to Saint George’s Hospital, although they had no official data about which devices were installed.
The ventilator was made by a firm that is under U.S. sanctions, according to Reuters.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Russia has seen more than 232,243 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 2,116 deaths from the virus, as of Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins. The country now has the second most confirmed cases behind the U.S.