[ad_1]
KUALA LUMPUR – Dr. Kathreena Kadir pumps disinfectant into her hands and rubs them thoroughly before proceeding to put on her personal protective equipment or PPE, including shoe covers, a gown, and a face mask.
It is the standard procedure that this oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the University of Malaya Medical Center now follows before meeting with patients to avoid contracting the coronavirus.
“Every patient who walks in the door is considered positive until proven otherwise,” says Dr. Kadir. “Therefore, we must ensure that we are fully prepared and protected in treating patients.”
The plastic face shield you are wearing was not produced in a factory or even by a company. It was done in a small house about 10 kilometers from the medical center.
It’s where William Alvisse, 52, has turned his family’s dining room into a production hub. Eight 3-D printers work almost non-stop making shields.
So far, the Alvisse family has spent $ 1,500 of their own money to make thousands of hospital shields in Malaysia.
“I am doing this because the front liners are the most important people right now,” says Alvisse. “No one else is more important than the front liners and if they need something, then I have to produce it. That’s my thought. ”
Alvisse runs the printers during the day, while his 20-year-old son Daryl does it at night.
The family is part of a Facebook group of more than 500 active members in Malaysia that produce PPE for health workers. In total, the group has manufactured more than 400,000 face shields, 2,000 streamlined cameras (inhalers) and several hundred incubation boxes.
“We heard that volunteers were using 3-D printers to help leaders in other countries, so we thought we should start this in Malaysia as well,” says Wan Cheng Huat, one of the group’s founders, 3-D Printing Malaysia Community. for COVID-19. The disease is caused by the coronavirus.
The group has expanded to bring volunteers with skills beyond 3D printing, including sewing. “Group members share a common bond of wanting to participate in this time of need,” says Wan, adding that most members do not charge for the PPE they produce. “Most of us have never met face to face, but we are facing this challenge together.”
Alvisse is a vendor for an e-learning company, but has only worked a few days since mid-March due to concerns about COVID-19. Before the coronavirus pandemic started, Alvisse already had a 3-D printer in his home and after he started producing face shields, several friends contributed around $ 2,300 to buy four more. The remaining three printers came from a local community center that Alvisse co-founded and which has been closed since mid-March.
Alvisse says that doing face shields gives him satisfaction for a couple of reasons.
“I got into this because I like to make a lot of adjustments,” he says. “I love the community. Therefore, these are two elements to unite the small experts and the community in this field ”.
The process begins with plastic coil filament fed to a 3-D printer, where it is melted and layered on a heated plate and formed into a frame. Each of the 3D printers in Alvisse’s house produces two frames at a time in about an hour. Alvisse’s wife, Miranda Tan, fastens a transparent plastic sheet to the frames, for the shield that provides protection.
On a recent afternoon, sofas and chairs in the family’s living room were stacked with bags of shields destined for Malaysian hospitals. “Sometimes it bothers me because it’s so hard to get around here with these tons of face shields,” said Miranda Tan with a slight smile. “But, I’m glad we are doing this. We will eventually get all this space back.”
The contributions of the volunteers have not gone unnoticed by medical workers like Kadir.
“I would like to thank all of these volunteers who have made a lot of donations and efforts to make sure that the front liners are always well protected,” he says.
