---
title: "An Overwhelmed Italian Hospital Is 3D Printing Replacement Parts"
description: "When an Italian hospital started to run out of ventilator valves, 3D printing firms came in to make some more on the spot."
date: "2020-03-16"
modified: "2020-03-16"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/overwhelmed-italian-hospital-3d-printing-parts"
categories:
  - "3D Printing"
  - "Future Materials"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "3d printing"
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "health"
---

# An Overwhelmed Italian Hospital Is 3D Printing Replacement Parts

![When an Italian hospital started to run out of ventilator valves, 3D printing firms came in to make some more on the spot.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Overwhelmed-Italian-Hospital-3D-Printing-Replacement-Parts.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Massimo Temporelli via Facebook\</em\>*

A hospital in Brescia, Italy, which is near one of the regions [hit hardest](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/italy-nationwide-travel-restrictions-death-toll-soars>) by the coronavirus outbreak, is reportedly turning to 3D-printed replacement parts in order to keep its intensive care unit running.

Specifically, the hospital needed extra valves for ventilator devices sooner than its usual supplier could send them, [according to *3D Printing Media Network*](<https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/covid-19-3d-printed-valve-for-reanimation-device/>). So on Friday, it called in local 3D printing companies that were able to design and manufacture the valves on-site.

As a result, ten patients were treated with a ventilator that night, *3DPMN* reports. Without the valves, their severe COVID-19 cases may have gone untreated in the overwhelmed hospital.

https://twitter.com/michalnaka/status/1239316241984049152?s=21

Since then, more companies have 3D printed dozens more of the valves in a bid to keep the hospital well-stocked for the foreseeable future, according to *3DPMN*. Cristian Fracassi, the technician who made the first ten, [posted on Facebook](<https://www.facebook.com/Ing.Cristian.Fracassi/posts/10222328772396310>) that he's working on making another hundred for the hospital.

"There were people in danger of life, and we acted," Fracassi wrote, as [translated by *Metro*](<https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/16/firm-refuses-give-blueprint-coronavirus-equipment-save-lives-12403815/>). "Period. Now, with a cold mind, let’s think. Firstly, don’t call us, as some have, heroes. Sure, people were about to die, but we only did our duty. Refusing would not have been a cowardly act, but murderous."

Each one of those parts corresponds to an individual patient who [needs intensive care](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/symptoms-of-coronavirus>) and can now be oxygenated in the hospital, illustrating just how dire the outbreak situation can get as small parts break or find themselves in short supply.

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)