Dave Kashy, a mechanical engineer at Jefferson Lab, is making intubation boxes for ventilators to protect health care workers during the coronavirus.
Kashy, who’s daughter and son-in-law are medical professionals, worked with Riverside to design and build the boxes.
When a patient is put on a ventilator, a tube is placed down the person’s windpipe to the lungs and the air around the person is filled with virus particles, according to the news release.
The intubation box is a clear, plastic box that can be placed around the patient’s head to block virus particles. See the video here.
“Even though we wear high-level personal protective equipment, PPE, during the procedure, gross contamination of this equipment increases the risk to medical providers,” said Dr. Gary Kavit of Riverside Emergency Medicine, in a prepared statement. “The intubation boxes provide a much-desired additional level of protection against direct spread of droplets onto the provider’s PPE and self.”
Similar intubation boxes are being distributed to across the county to emergency departments, intensive care units and operating rooms, Kavit noted.
“Dave Kashy’s initiative to collaborate with Riverside to bring an extra level of safety to our staff is profoundly appreciated,” Kavit added. “Riverside is keenly focused on keeping staff, as well as patients, safe during this pandemic.”
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