Los Angeles Times

'Apollo 13 moments': Amid coronavirus crisis, doctors, inventors convert devices into ventilators

WASHINGTON - Dr. Charles Powell describes it as an "Apollo 13 moment." In just a few days, a team of doctors and respiratory therapists at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City scavenged tubes and electronics, crafted a key part on a 3D printer, and successfully converted a $1,500 sleep therapy device into a full-blown ventilator, capable of substituting for the $50,000 machine on many, although not all, patients.

Across the country, Isaac Larian, a Los Angeles entrepreneur and owner of one of the country's largest toy manufacturing companies, pursued a similar goal. His designers and engineers worked with doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center to create two types of masks resembling those used by scuba divers - one to protect health care workers and

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