How do ventilators work? – Alex Gendler

Take a journey into the respiratory system to see how ventilators bypass constricted airways and help damaged lungs send oxygen to the body.

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In the 16th century, physician Andreas Vesalius described how a suffocating animal could be kept alive by inserting a tube into its trachea and blowing air to inflate its lungs. Today, Vesalius’s treatise is recognized as the first description of mechanical ventilation— a crucial practice in modern medicine. So how do our modern ventilators work? Alex Gendler explains the life-saving technology.

Lesson by Alex Gendler, directed by Artrake Studio.

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