Inflatable hospital-to-go speeds emergency relief

Specialty Fabrics Review | January 2009

The Kentucky Department of Public Health recently raised a 45-bed hospital inside Louisville’s Kentucky Exposition Center using air compressors, human power and inflatable tent technology on a grand scale. Kentucky emergency management officials planning logistics for tornados, floods, large chemical accidents or a pandemic influenza outbreak purchased the instant hospital for deployment during disasters taking place far from urban medical resources.

The 3,342-square-foot mobile medical center, manufactured by Zumro Inc., Hatboro, Pa., is completely self-contained, with two large generators, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. The inflatable tents provide areas to triage incoming disaster victims and to isolate infectious disease patients. At one point in the deployment drill, 16 people lifted one 860-square-foot tent included in the system and moved it several yards, demonstrating its lightness and versatility. The mil-spec neoprene air-frame tent resists rotting, holds huge loads (wind, snow, ice, rain) even at very low air pressure, and deploys rapidly under extreme weather conditions.

The mobile medical centers are a logical next step for Zumro, which has 7,000 shelters (primarily decontamination inflatable structures) in use nationwide. Customer demand for larger, stronger shelters led Zumro to expand into the medical field. “This is a big deal for us and for our workers,” says Win VanBasten, Zumro president.

Comments

Comments are the opinion of individual posters and do not reflect the views of Specialty Fabrics Review or Industrial Fabrics Association International.

• 

  Ron Akron

  Feb 18, 2010
  12:19 am CST

  Whatever happened to the US Army Inflatable Hospitals??

  For almost two weeks I was amazed that no mention had been made of inflatable hospitals in Haiti.  I only recently found information on the Internet about the MSF inflatable hospitals used in Pakistan and finally being deployed to Haiti.

   

  In 1965 I was in the United States Army Medical Service Corps and stationed at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

   

  During the summer of 1965, I was in charge of demonstrating a completely self-contained inflatable hospital to, as I remember, members of the American Society of Applied Physics, highly ranked United States military officers, and highly positioned federal government officials.

   

   As I remember, and that was 45 years ago, those inflatable "Quonset hut" units were 20 feet wide and 60 feet long.  The units were designed so that they could be attached directly to adjacent in-line units or at 90 degrees by using an optional fabric connecting chamber, which also could be used as an entrance air lock or decontamination chamber.

   

  The units or "huts" were made up of contiguous 14" or 16" diameter tubes.  Each "tube" was independently attached to manifolds on both sides of the unit, which insured the unit would remain erect in the event one or more "tubes" were punctured.  There was no interior or exterior supporting structure or loose fabric.  Heated or cooled air was delivered to each unit by flexible hoses attached to a fabric semi-circular zippered-opening manifold, which ran lengthwise inside the top of the unit. 

   

  Each 20' x 60' inflatable unit was packed in a 4' x 4' x 4' reusable shipping container.

   

  The gasoline powered inflation pump and electrical generator module was also packed in a 4' x 4' x 4' reusable shipping container.  The third shipping container contained the heating and air conditioning unit.  And finally, the fourth shipping container held all the supplies and equipment necessary to do in-the-field emergency surgical procedures.

   

  Although I did not see the fifth module, I was told it contained the portable x-ray unit and film developing equipment.  All modules (filled shipping containers) weighed less that 400 pounds and were designed to be lifted and moved by four men.

   

  These modules were designed to be delivered by pickup-size trucks and helicopters and, as I remember, could also be parachute dropped from transport aircraft. 

   

  Essentially all you had to add was gasoline and doctors.  Beds were optional and the packing containers could be used as operating tables under extreme conditions.

   

   I personally helped set up this demonstration hospital in the gymnasium of the Walter Reed Army Hospital.  Since we could not run a gasoline engine inside the building we used a small, very old household vacuum cleaner to inflate the unit.  The whole set-up took four people less than two hours, not the 48 hours that MSF inflatable hospital requires.

   

  It is shocking to me that this technology, which is more than 45 years old, is only now being "rediscovered".  I suspect that the United States military has these Inflatable Hospitals packed away and forgotten in a warehouse somewhere. 

   

  It could be, however, since military evacuation of the wounded has improved so much in 45 years that patient stabilization and transportation to permanent medical facilities has made these Inflatable Hospitals obsolete for our military.

   

  Thanks to MSF for all the good work you are doing everywhere.

• 

  Galynn Nordstrom

  Feb 18, 2010
  5:41 pm CST

  Let's hear it for the '60s!

  Mr. Akron: thanks for taking the time to give us this story..."add gasoline and doctors" would make a great head. I'm going to do some research on MSF and see what I can find for a future issue of the magazine. Thanks again for giving such an informed perspective for us.