Martello BLOG : Martello Life

Martello Employee Provides Face Shields When Supplies Are Critical

Protecting our front-line workers as they battle COVID-19 has become a focal point for many people in the community. Using the resources and skills at our disposal can make the difference between life and death for many people.

Front-line workers rely on many items to keep them safe when interacting with patients. This includes masks, gloves and face shields.

Bill Kuker, of Martello, is a founding member of The MINT Rutland’s Makerspace. The MINT is a shared workshop and classroom for anyone in the community who is interested in making things. Often hobbyists, DIY enthusiasts, educators, students and entrepreneurs don’t have available space or can’t afford to own a workshop filled with the tools they need to turn their ideas into reality. With the ability to make almost anything, The MINT has turned their attention to making face shields to helping front-line workers protect themselves when social distancing isn’t an option.

“So the hospital said if we had face shields — they’re … the plastic things you’ll see emergency workers wearing over their mask — it prevents a lot of the aerosolized stuff from being breathed in anyway, and they are running short on those,” Peg Bolgioni, hospital spokeswoman said. “The specific thing about that plastic that’s great is it’s already used in the medical field because it can be sterilized, and it’s thin enough that our design requires it to be flexible to get bent, and so that’s what’s going to work.”

So far, the team of makers have made over 400 face shields for the local hospital, with a goal of producing 10,000.

Working with staff from the Rutland Regional Medical Center, a team of volunteers from The MINT has developed a face shield that is laser cut from a single piece of 0.020 PET plastic in less than a minute, ships flat and folds to use.

See how they’re made:

The biggest challenge this initiative faces is getting the supply of plastic to print the shields. Funding is also needed to help to purchase the materials in order to create the shields. Once they have the supplies, they can produce 1,000 face shields in an eight-hour shift. These cut shields store flat for easy transport and only take seconds to assemble for use.

“As far as actual money goes, some parts of this project are just sending a guy in a van with a fistful of dollars to places that have some of the plastic in supply,” Martello’s Bill Kuker said.  “We are all personally fronting the cash, so any donation is helpful.”

Each shield costs between $1-3 to make, depending on the materials the team is able to secure. The face shield design is open source and freely available.

Martello is happy to support this initiative through a financial donation using our Employee-Directed Gift Program and it is the second donation that has been made in recent weeks to support COVID-19 relief.

After the launch in 2016 of Martello’s Employee-Directed Gift Program, employees were empowered to make a deeper connection and financial contribution to the community organizations that matter the most to them. Through this program, Martello has been able to contribute to local sports teams, getting kids out on bicycles, helping students travel and provide aid to those who need it, providing education support to indigenous students, supporting a hack-a-thon for health, giving support to a Cochlear Implant group, and serving underserved communities.

Martello Employee Gives Back to Local Hospital In Time of Crisis

When hospitals are reaching capacity and are uncertain about what the coming days will bring, every little bit of help will save lives.

From sewing protective garments for hospital staff, to food bank donations and using technology to create plastic protective gear, giving back to our community in a time of crisis is more important than ever.

The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to overwhelm Canada’s existing supply of life-saving ventilators, so health officials across the country have been scrambling to supply these resources to the areas that need them the most. While ventilators are expensive, with prices averaging in the tens of thousands of dollars, they allow doctors to directly attack a patient’s breathing issues.

“They are complex computers; they have a lot of features which allow us to individualize our care for each patient that comes our way,” said Dr. Irvin Mayers, professor of medicine at the University of Alberta.

A symptom of COVID-19 is difficulty breathing and ventilators are needed to aid the recovery process for many patients. Ventilators help people breathe when their lungs cease to function properly and can save lives.

“The body’s response to the infection is with a lot of inflammation and it’s the inflammation in the air passage that seems to give all the problems, so you can support people with their breathing until this settle,” Dr. Mayers said.

A Martello employee, a former Respiratory Therapist, had one of these life-saving machines in his office at home. He used to write software for ventilators and still had one on hand that had never been used. Given the current circumstances, he felt it was best to gift it to his local hospital.

“I have many friends that are active Respiratory Therapists and are among the front-line employees battling the COVID-19 war,” Steve Bemister of Martello said. “Some contracted the virus early on and are now fighting for their own lives.  As the number of cases increases, there will be a ventilator shortage even though companies like Ford, GM and Tesla are helping with production. For smaller rural hospitals, they simply do not have emergency budgets to purchase an acute care ventilator which can cost upwards of $50,000.  Although the ventilator I donated is not an acute care model, it can still be useful in an emergency situation or for performing patient transports.”

When delivering his equipment donation, he also contributed financially to the hospital. Using Martello’s Employee-Directed Gift Program, Steve made a financial contribution to the hospital to add to their resources to help fight this virus that has had a huge impact on our communities.

“Martello is very pleased to be able to offer some assistance to a local community hospital in its fight against COVID-19,” Tracy King, VP Marketing at Martello said. “Steve’s donation of equipment will save lives and Martello’s Employee Directed Gift Program is happy to add to his contribution.”

Accepting the equipment donation was Martin Burger, left, who is the hospital’s Clinical Manager for Ambulatory Programs and Food Services and Respiratory Therapy Team Leader Sara McKean-Schulthies.

After the launch in 2016 of Martello’s Employee-Directed Gift Program, employees were empowered to make a deeper connection and financial contribution to the community organizations that matter the most to them. Through this program, Martello has been able to contribute to local sports teams, getting kids out on bicycles, helping students travel and provide aid to those who need it, providing education support to indigenous students, supporting a hack-a-thon for health, giving support to a Cochlear Implant group, and serving underserved communities.