Name/TitleEquipment: Penlon Nuffield Ventilator with 'Bag in the Box' Transfer Unit and Medishield Disconnect Alarm

About this objectPortable Penlon Nuffield ventilator with 'Bag in the Box' Transfer Unit and Medishield Disconnect Alarm on a star base with 4 wheels.

The penlon ventilator is a fluidic machine which has virtually no moving parts. It is compact and light. It is quite capable of ventilating patients directly in its own right. In anaesthesia it has usually been used with a bag in the box transfer unit where the bag is in circuit and contains the anaesthetic gases. Thus the ventilator acts as a bag squeezer and therefore ventilates the patient indirectly. It was acquired by The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Anaesthetic Department in the 1980s. It was manufactured in the UK by Nuffield.

Bag in the box component was assembled in the TQEH workshop using parts salvaged from older surplus equipment and was tailor made for the Penlon.

The medishield alarm was manufactured by in Melbourne by Medishield Ohmeda. It was pressure sensitive and would sound off if the pressure in the system fell below a preset value, indicating a disconnection or a major leak. It would also alarm, with a different sound, if pressure was exceeded. Anesthetists were trained to be ever vigilant to recognise and immediately correct such events before the alarm cut in. However the alarm was more necessary during the pressure of operations. The monitoring device was purchased by TQEH Anaesthetic Department in March 1984.

Date Made1980s

Medium and MaterialsMetal, plastic, perspex, rubber

MeasurementsL 115cm x W 42cm x D 42cm

CollectionThe Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Object TypeEquipment

Object numberAR#9006