Ventilator company started by Dr. Forrest Bird will move to Sandpoint

Percussionaire, a company started by the late Dr. Forrest Bird, will move into part of the old Coldwater Creek campus in Sandpoint.

Percussionaire makes ventilators, including products used for patients in intensive care and people with advanced lung disease. “We treat the sickest of the sick,” said Mark Baillie, the company’s chief executive.

About 50 employees will work in 40,000-square feet of space at the north end of Coldwater Creek’s former distribution center. Both manufacturing operations and the research and development team will be housed in the building. The move should be complete by mid-summer.

Bird, a physician, aviator and inventor, died at age 94 in 2015. He created the first low-cost, mass-produced medical respirators, including the “Babybird” in 1970 that replaced the iron lung and dramatically reduced infant mortality.

Percussionaire had been located near Bird’s ranch at Glengary Bay on Lake Pend Oreille.

“This move is a tribute to my father’s legacy,” said Cathy Bird Natoni, Bird’s daughter and chair of Percussionaire’s board of directors.

The relocation will allow the company to better serve respiratory patients around the world, she said.