When a friend who is a nurse told the Talbot County Free Library’s Amy Wise that Easton Memorial Hospital has been forced to ration Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for staff due to the COVID-19 outbreak, she decided to do something about it. Using the library’s 3D printer,Wise went to work creating face shields designed to keep our health care workers safe as they care for their patients.
It turns out the shields are not easy to make. Each print job takes a little over 6 hours to complete, and Wise has found that trying to run the printers all day causes errors to creep into the end-product. So, frustratingly, she has to take her time. Currently (with help from Dr. Andrew Thaler of Blackbeard Biologic, who donated the printer to the library), Wise is able to create just three shields a day. Still, despite the slow pace, she expects to send 15 new, sterilized shields to the hospital this week, with 15 more to follow as soon as more plastic arrives.
But COVID-19 has presented area health care workers with yet another unexpected problem. It turns out that wearing a face mask hooked over your ears all day takes a toll. Many nurses are finding the tender skin behind their ears is becoming inflamed and even, in some cases, beginning to bleed. To alleviate the problem, Wise has begun using the 3D printer to create fitted plastic bands (rather like the ones at the back of baseball caps) that allow health care workers to secure their face masks behind their heads instead of over their ears. Thankfully, the bands only take about half an hour to print.
It seems fitting that later this month (4/19-25/20), we’ll celebrate National Library Week. Here in Talbot County our library’s Amy Wise has shown us in how many different—and often unexpected ways—the Talbot County Free Library can make our community a better, safer place to live.
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