TYLER, Texas — N95 respirators continue to be a necessity for medical workers treating patients who may or may not have COVID-19.
"One of the things that is happening with this virus is that people don't know that they're carrying it," said Dr. Jeff Beers, physician director of Hospital Health ER serving Tyler and Longview. "It may be a family member of a patient that is there for another reason but we still need to keep our staff healthy."
Dr. Beers says demand for N95 respirators or masks has remained high amid the coronavirus. He says the mask have been hard to come by.
"We’ve got them from some people who have just donated them, dentist friends that have given me some, all kinds of sources that have been gracious enough to donate what they do have, while they don’t need it, so we can use it," Dr. Beers said.
Dr. Ashiq Zaman, chief resident of occupational and environmental medicine at UT Health Science Center at Tyler, has been working along staff and volunteers to refurbish expired N95 masks house onsite.
"We’ve basically had access to about initially 60,000 expired stock N95 respirators," Dr. Zaman said. "The only issue with these masks is that the elastic band on the inside is very brittle and when you go to put in on it’ll either snap or it won’t sustain pressure against your face and won’t fit you."
Dr. Zaman says the number of refurbished masks have passed 30,000 so far.
"We've basically found a solution using a surgical grade rubber band and two zip ties and a couple of well positioned hole punches in the respirator," he said.
The refurbished product will be used as needed and used as a backup for medical personnel.
Dr. Zaman says they're also working with other medical communities where they see a need or request.
"Another organization we’re working with is NET Health, and we’re actually in the process of refurbishing some of their products, which happen to be the exact make and model, and the same model year in fact, and as far as I understand it the distribution of those particular respirators will be much wider," Dr. Zaman explained.
They are also working with a hospital chain in Virginia to help them reuse their stock as well.
"About a week ago, we got a call from a Virginia Hospital Association," Dr. Zaman said. "They have about a million of the same respirators that we do."
Dr. Zaman says the FDA issued Emergency Use Authorization in February that allowed for the refurbishment of N95 respirators.
"Before that we really wouldn't see something like this happen, it's an issue of need right now and the FDA realizes that," Dr. Zaman said.