An engineering company in Italy is saving lives and risking a future lawsuit by 3D-printing an expensive — and patented — medical valve needed to treat victims of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The valves are used to connect COVID-19 patients to breathing machines at a hospital in Brescia, a city in northern Italy where the coronavirus outbreak has been most severe.
However, the patented valves cost thousands of dollars and they must be changed out and discarded every eight hours to keep patients alive, according to Business Insider.
The hospital simply couldn’t keep up with the demand, so a local reporter and a physicist put the hospital in touch with Isinnova, a tech start-up that specializes in 3D-printing.