Community Comes Together to Make Personal Protective Equipment

Warrensburg, MO (April 10, 2020) — Local community members came together to make personal protective equipment (PPE) for Western Missouri Medical Center (WMMC) and Johnson County Emergency Operations Center (JOCO EOC). These most recent donations came from a collaboration from Stealth Panther Robotics Team and two Johnson County citizens, Nick Anderson and John Wisocky. They all worked together to help during the COVID-19 crisis. They quickly began to fundraise for supplies and started printing face shields using the 3D printers.

They first printed and constructed 45 face shields, 11 of which were specially designed for use in the Emergency Department (ED). Two masks can be made in approximately thirty minutes with the specialty designed shields for the ED taking extra time. In addition to this generous donation to WMMC, they donated 203 face shields to JOCO EOC, and will continue to share what they can print to local schools and the Kansas City PPE drive.

Stealth Panther Robotics students with the face shields donated to WMMC and Johnson County Emergency Operations Center.

Another donation came from John Wisocky when he realized that there was an increasing need to protect providers during intubation (opening up the airway to give oxygen, anesthesia, or medicine to help a person breathe). When providers intubate a patient that may have COVID-19, they are exposed to the contagious droplets that cause infection. John created these intubation boxes that allow a care provider to safely intubate a patient without risk of exposure to COVID-19. Two of these boxes were donated to WMMC, valued at $250 each.

The 3D intubation box donated to WMMC staff.

WMMC and JOCO EOC are grateful for all the support from the community to meet the need of PPE during the COVID-19 crisis. To learn more about donating PPE to WMMC, visit WMMC.com/COVID-19 or to JOCO EMA, visit jocoema.com/johnson-county-covid-19-task-force.html.