ventilator

[ven-tl-ey-ter]

noun

1. a person or thing that ventilates.

2. a contrivance or opening for replacing foul or stagnant air with fresh air.

3. Medicine/Medical.,  an apparatus to produce artificial respiration, moving air into and out of a patient’s lungs.

   The patient presented with signs of respiratory failure and was placed immediately on a ventilator.

ventilator

/ ˈvɛntɪˌleɪtə /

noun

1. an opening or device, such as a fan, used to ventilate a room, building, etc

2. med a machine that maintains a flow of air into and out of the lungs of a patient who is unable to breathe normally

Word History and Origins

Origin of ventilator¹

First recorded in 1735–45; ventilat(e) + -or ²

Example Sentences

The Colombian survivor arrived in his homeland "with a traumatic brain injury, sedated, medicated, and breathing with the help of a ventilator", according to Colombia's interior minister.

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Like the boy she watched suffocate because the hospital didn’t have enough ventilators.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

One of the trialled drugs caused her to stop breathing, and she had be put on a ventilator.

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Yusuf's family called on the trust to ensure families were told that when their children were on a ventilator they may still be able to hear them, and should be encouraged to interact with them.

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They are costumed as though you asked a coma patient, freshly awake after 20 years on the ventilator, to sketch these ladies from memory.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• fireplace 
• flue 
• furnace 
• hearth 
• pipe 
• stack 
• vent