April 2020 Machias – Machias Memorial High School Physical Sciences teacher, Jim Lenke, reached out to the hospital to ask if we needed face shields. Yes, was the answer! Mr. Lenke used the school’s 3D printers to make visors that were designed with notches spaced across the front of the visor. These notches were designed to be matched with and fit into the holes made by a 3-hole punch. The reason that is important is it made it easy to produce the plastic shields that would be attached to the visors. The visors and the face shields were made so they could be easily decontaminated, and the faces shields can be easily replaced when they need to be. The plan is for each frontline staffer to have their own visor for their use. So far, visors with face shields have been distributed to the Laboratory, Cardiopulmonary, and Emergency Department staff. The next round will be distributed to the front-line staff on the inpatient floor.
Hospital CEO, Steve Lail, on the face shields, “We were prepared to pay for the visors, but Mr. Lenke talked with Principal, Brian Leavitt, and he waived all costs. Machias Memorial High School straight up donated everything! We put out there that we needed PPE, our community comes up with a way to provide us with PPE. It’s pretty amazing really.” “We love these face shields and are grateful for and proud of our community that just keeps on giving.” Carrie Cassidy, BSN, RN,CEN, Emergency Department Director.
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