Americans threw away 45 Russian Aventa-M artificial lung ventilators

According to Radio Liberty, a representative of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) told reporters about the disposal of Russian Aventa-M ventilators. The date of the destruction of the devices is not named. However, it is known that the American side abandoned the use of Russian equipment back in May. One of the reasons was the lack of power adapters in local hospitals, which are necessary for connecting Russian ventilators.

“In addition, exactly the same devices caused fires in two hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg, which killed six people. At the same time, the authorities of the American states began to return the Aventa-M ventilators brought from Russia to the agency”, - the message says.

At first, there was no talk of a complete rejection of Aventa-M. The equipment supplied from Russia was kept as a "backup" in case the situation with coronavirus infection in New York and New Jersey worsens.

The Russian An-124 aircraft with medical equipment arrived in the United States on April 1, 2020. Along with ventilators, there was other Russian-made medical equipment in the liner. The Russian authorities called it a "humanitarian cargo". As Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov commented on the delivery, Russia "extended a helping hand to the American people". However, on the same day it turned out that the aid was not free of charge: the United States paid for most of the delivered cargo.

"The United States agreed to purchase from Russia the necessary medical equipment, including breathing apparatus and personal protective equipment, which were transferred on April 1 in New York", - the State Department commented on the delivery.

The situation with the supply of ventilators was further complicated by the fact that the equipment was assembled at the Ural Instrument-Making Plant, which is part of Rostec, and this manufacturer was included in the US sanctions list.

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, scandals and abuses related to the supply of unusable medical equipment for the treatment of patients with coronavirus were recorded in many regions of Russia. So, in April, the police seized 1,500 expired ventilators in the Sverdlovsk and Kostroma regions. The security forces suppressed the activities of a group that was selling unregistered medical equipment.

“Initially, the police seized 287 Phase-5NR devices with a total value of over 200 million rubles. Later, in the course of searches in the Kostroma and Sverdlovsk regions, about 1.5 thousand mechanical ventilation devices were found and seized", - the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

The suspects offered to buy from them equipment manufactured in 1999-2000. These ventilators expired about 15 years ago. Experts have found that the use of expired devices is dangerous for the lives of patients. Subsequently, the heads of the Kostroma company that sold expired ventilators were arrested.