Arizona Doctor Helps Build Innovative Device To Protect Health Care Workers Fighting Coronavirus
Thanks to an Arizona physician, health care professionals across the country could soon be safer as they continue to lead the fight against the novel coronavirus.
Dr. Ben Reeser, an emergency room physician in Phoenix, developed a new piece of medical technology that limits viral exposure between medical workers and their patients.
Based on a design by Dr. Hsien Yung Lai of Taiwan, the device is a fiberglass box meant to be placed around an infectious patient’s head.
Two holes are cut out to allow physicians to tend to their patients and perform intubation without risk of aerosolized exposure.
“Every time we intubate, there’s probably at least four other people in the room,” Reeser told KNXV-TV.
“There is the physician, a nurse, respiratory therapist, and more all exposed during that procedure.”
Resser’s development solves that problem, providing protection for nurses, doctors and any other medical professionals required to work in close proximity to their patients.
Reeser enlisted the help of Matthew Moore and Urban Plough Furniture, a Phoenix-based company, to help with the production of the equipment.
“He said, ‘We have these things that we have to make to save people’s lives,’” Moore told the station.
“That’s all it took for us to get started right away.”
An additional company, Tuft & Needle, has contributed money to produce the devices, KNXV reported.
Thanks to these companies and Reeser’s smart thinking, several boxes have already been shipped to intensive care units in the Phoenix area.
They have placed the design on the website Intubationbox.com so that health care providers across the country can make their own. The site notes that, “We have a very limited ability to fabricate and ship out ready to assemble boxes,” but encourages hospitals in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah to request one.
This isn’t the only recent example of a doctor’s innovation helping combat the coronavirus.
On March 14, Dr. Charlene Babcock, who practices in the Detroit area, released a video showing how one ventilator could be easily modified to provide ventilation for four adults.
This unprecedented global catastrophe caused by the coronavirus has caused the world a fair bit of pain and suffering, with New York the hardest-hit site in the U.S. The high death rate of COVID-19 has proven very difficult for many countries to handle.
Amidst all this panic comes one silver lining, however.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown just how uniquely poised America is to tackle such enormous crises. The stress of combating this epidemic has proven how powerful American determination truly are.
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