MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Muskogee is coming together to help medical workers as a stressful time for them is made even worse amid a shortage of face masks to keep them safe.
Muskogee has been hit hard by the shortage, with County Commissioner Ken Doke saying he has gotten several calls from concerned health care workers. The community had started a drive to make cloth masks, but Doke wanted to take that a step further.
He called Collin McCawley at the Muskogee High School Fab Lab, and asked if it would be possible to begin 3D printing face masks that would use a portion of an N95 respirator while also protecting the face.
The two found a design that would extend the life of each respirator, and McCawley fired up the lab.
"It’s going to be a tsunami if it gets to where they’re predicting it to be, so we’re just trying to do as much as we can,” McCawley said. “There are people that want to make sure they’re being kept safe, and that they are able to make the most of the limited resources we have.”
All available 3D printers in the lab are now hard at work churning out 23 masks a day. Some can make a pair of masks in four hours, others take 17 hours to churn out five. The goal is to make 500 masks and face shields with the help of nearby Optronics, and find a local hospital that can use them.
"We want to make sure our people who are coming in contact with potential COVID-19 patients have the proper resources,“ Doke said. “I know our healthcare workers are scared right now, and they’re having to leave their families and go to the front lines to fight this battle, and we want them to know they’re not alone and we have their back.”
Each location making the materials are battling a supply shortage of their own, so every bit they can give is going a long way.
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