Water contamination of the central air supply: Out of sight, out of mind!

Kamal, Geeta; Gupta, A.B.; Bathla, Sapna; Gupta, Aikta

doi:10.4103/joacp.joacp_175_16

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 3 publications

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“…In regions with high ambient humidity (such as Singapore), failure of any step in the process can lead to contamination of the air supply with water [1]. Indeed, there have been other case reports from centres with tropical climates, where faulty compressor-dryer systems led to similar events [2][3][4]. The contamination of gases with water disrupts sensitive components of ventilators and other equipment, and harbours a site for bacterial growth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contamination of the central medical air supply with water leading to mass ventilator failure

Chia

Goh

et al. 2023

Anaesthesia Reports

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SummaryHere, we present a case of mass ventilator failure due to contaminated medical air. Multiple ventilators failed routine tests, including almost all of the ventilators in our intensive care unit. A faulty air compressor had led to water contamination of our centre's supply of medical air. Water entered the pipeline supply of air and, hence the ventilators and anaesthetic machines. The disruption of the machines' proportional mixer valve resulted in unreliable delivery of fresh gas flow. This malfunction was discovered during routine pre‐use checks, and backup ventilators were available to replace the faulty ventilators. A shortage of equipment was averted due to a serendipitous availability of ventilator stockpiles prepared for the COVID‐19 pandemic. Ventilator shortages are commonly described in mass casualty and pandemic scenarios. While there are multiple strategies described in literature to augment and maximise equipment available for mechanical ventilation, stockpiling equipment remains an expensive but necessary component of disaster contingency planning.

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