PITTSFIELD, Mass. — To help advance education in the respiratory therapy (RT) profession and honor the life's work of Dr. Robert Kacmarek, Dräger has donated a Babylog VN500 ventilator to every school in Massachusetts with a respiratory therapy program, including Berkshire Community College. 

 

This marks the seventh year of Dräger's RT school donation program, which began in 2014. 

 

Dräger is an international leader in the fields of medical and safety technology. The Dräger Babylog VN500 is a ventilator for neonatal and pediatric patients ranging from 0.88 pounds to 44 pounds who require temporary or long-term respiratory support. 

 

According to a press release, Dr. Robert Kacmarek was best-known and most respected respiratory therapist in the world. A professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Respiratory Care at Massachusetts General Hospital, he dedicated his career to the growth of the respiratory profession, serving as a member of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) for more than 50 years, writing 19 textbooks, authoring or co-authoring more than 300 articles, and presenting more than 700 lectures at respiratory care and medical conferences nationally and worldwide. 

 

Dr. Kacmarek, who designed ventilators that have been successfully used during the COVID-19 pandemic, died on April 1, 2021.