Coronavirus In Minnesota: With Production Of Prosthetics Halted, Crew At Gillette Children's Hospital Make Masks
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- With COVID-19 taking priority at hospitals, other services, some very important services, are on hold.
At Gillette Children's in St. Paul they've all but halted production of prosthetic, leg braces and custom wheelchair fittings.
As of this week, the techs who make the devices are using their skills to do something completely different.
The device production room is a place with a purpose. Matthew Veverka makes personalized head protection for kids, he says he loves bettering the lives of kids, "There is a picture of one of my friends kids that I got the pleasure of making a cranio cap for so that's really cool."
The technicians also make prosthetics, personalized braces and custom sewn seats for wheelchairs.
But with COVID-19, and limited medical appointments, the demand went down. So they came up with an idea, to make highly coveted hospital masks.
Aaron Rasmussen is a supervisor and Certified Orthotist at Gillette Children's Hospital, "From cutting materials, to folding materials, to sewing, everybody has their own role in the production of the mask."
The versatile crew has already made 600 of the masks, they will go to Gillette employees who don't deal directly with patients.
They tested the masks to make sure they hold up against COVID coughs.
Aaron says it all just makes sense, "Well we took a skill set that our employees already have, they are great at fabrication, they are great at sewing so it was a seamless transition."
And seamless it is, Aaron explains, "It feels a little different but in the end we are still helping people and it feels good either way."
The prosthetic team is working on a new prototype that would provide even stronger masks, for medical workers in surgical settings.
