Ventilators can be surprisingly simple. The old MA IIs had no “electronics” IIRC. Over the decades ventilators have become much more compact, mobile, all sorts of bells and whistles, safety measures to prevent barotrauma. They used to be incredibly simple, I changed vent settings on my patients in the ICU myself more frequently than the RTs did.
Today’s’ vent is highly complex, it can do things the old vents couldn’t do. We knew in our day it was theoretically posssible to ventilate a lung with a “jet” that caused laminar flow and NO “breaths”. Inhalation and exhalation occurring simultaneously through laminar flow. The old vents couldn’t do that. The new ones have all kinds of waveforms of pressure that can be delivered to address specific clinical situations. They can “trigger” only when certain parameters are met. They are extremely complex pieces of machinery.
Cut my teeth on a Bear MA 1...
Nothing was digital....
MA-3's were a break-thru...
Servos were complicated...IF you didn't know how to work them.
Draager's..were on top of it...many years ago..with "auto flow"....