A growing number of medical professionals and others are making their own protective equipment to combat the new coronavirus. Some self-made protective equipment is being mass produced in cooperation with companies.
At Tokyo Medical University Hospital in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, transparent acrylic boxes are being used to cover patients' heads. Hands can be inserted through the holes while still protecting medical professionals from the virus. Akihiro Kusume, 28, an architect from Kobe, created the box. Kusume's brother is a doctor and a member of the hospital's medical team.
On April 4, Kusume received a message via LINE messaging app from his brother, who found a blueprint in a U.S. journal for such a box, made by a doctor in Taiwan.
"How do you think someone can make this?" the brother wrote.
"I'm gonna make it," Kusume wrote back.
He immediately went to buy the materials and completed the box overnight.
"I wanted to support the doctors who are working hard at the risk of infection," he said.
The finished product arrived at the hospital on April 7, and a patient's condition deteriorated the next day. Doctors and nurses intubated the patient and put on a ventilator while using the box.
"There is a barrier, so we can treat patients without having to worry as much," a nurse said.
Upon Kusume's request, a company in Osaka Prefecture started mass production of the boxes. The hospital is also using additional boxes.
"If we fall ill, we cannot protect patients," said a doctor on the treatment team. "I want to save as many lives with the help of the box as possible."
At St. Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital in Kawasaki, 38-year-old doctor Tomoya Tsuchida made a protective shield. Doctors place it between themselves and a patient to prevent droplets from hitting them. It is made out of water-repellent cardboard. Hospital workers can view the patient through a transparent window made out of an acrylic plate. It can be used repeatedly if the workers wear disposable gloves to collect samples from the patient and they wipe the surface with alcohol. The company Star Ball in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, finished making the products and started selling them on its website.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
