The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has disposed of 45 artificial lung ventilation machines Avetna-M that the United States had received from Russia. None of those ventilators has ever been used in the USA, BuzzFeed reports.
The devices were decommissioned properly, in accordance with all applicable rules, after they had been stored in a warehouse as spare equipment. The devices had not been used for a number of reasons:
- the difference in voltage in electrical networks of the United States and Russia made the use of the devices impossible without special adapters, which American hospitals did not have.
- several ventilators of this particular model caused fires at Russian hospitals. Six people were killed, and the manufacturer had to stop producing those ventilators as a result of those fires.
To crown it all, the company that manufactures the equipment remains on the sanctions list, which caused outrage among members of the US Democratic Party. They also claimed that Washington's response to Moscow's assistance in connection with the pandemic was five and a half times more expensive than the assistance that Russia provided to the USA.
On April 1, the Russian military transport aircraft An-124 Ruslan delivered humanitarian aid to the United States. On board the aircraft there were disinfectants, goggles, respirators and masks, as well as ventillators. The State Department said that the shipments from Russia had been paid for in full. However, Moscow pointed out that a half of the shipment had been paid for by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), while the US side paid for the other half.
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