An improvised protective device for use when intubating patients designed by Taiwanese doctor Lai Hsien-yung (賴賢勇) is being adopted in the Philippines to help doctors there stay safe amid the worsening COVID-19 pandemic.
“We made this acrylic aerosol box for my sister Dra. Frances Legaspi for Antipolo Doctors Hospital. Credits to Dr Lai Hsien-yung for the concept and design,” Anton Legaspi, whose family owns a business that makes customized designs, said on Facebook on Monday.
The hospital is in Antipolo, about 25km east of Manila.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
Legaspi’s post was accompanied by several photographs of the box and a short demonstration video that was shot in the hospital. As of yesterday morning, his post was shared more than 60 times.
The “aerosol box” designed by Lai, an anesthesiologist at Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, is a transparent cube made of acrylic that covers a patient’s head during endotracheal intubation, a necessary procedure for patients with the coronavirus who experience respiratory failure.
It has two holes on one side through which physicians can insert their hands to perform the procedure while shielded from the patient’s respiratory droplets.
Lai on Saturday shared his design on Facebook and gave permission for its noncommercial use. His invention was reported by the Central News Agency (CNA) and several other local media outlets.
Legaspi yesterday told CNA in an interview that he and his sister, an emergency room doctor, learned of the device on Sunday night through posts shared on social media and created the prototype the next morning, overcoming challenges caused by a lockdown of Metro Manila.
“We were lucky enough to get a supplier who had available stocks of raw materials. The workers at the shop live at the factory, so we were able to make it,” Legaspi said.
He said that his sister asked him if he could make such a box, because it was needed at the hospital as supplies of personal protective equipment in the Philippines are running low.
As of Monday afternoon, there were 462 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, with 33 deaths and 18 patients who have recovered.
Legaspi’s version features larger holes to accommodate bigger arms.
Other suggestions he received from people in the medical field include making a small flap on the open side for additional maneuverability and protection, Legaspi said.
Donors and acrylic suppliers have pledged support for the production of the device, which would be donated to public and private hospitals nationwide, he said.
He estimated the cost of each aerosol box at 1,500 pesos (US$29.40), less than Lai’s estimate of about NT$2,000.
“It would be nice to have it mass-produced to cater to many more patients. It may still be used even after the COVID-19 pandemic,” Legaspi said.
A survey of young Taiwanese showed that only 36.5 percent of men and 19.6 percent of women believe marriage is important, a trend that academics say is key to the nation’s low birthrate. Yang Wen-shan (楊文山), an adjunct research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology, yesterday announced the 12th round of results from a longitudinal survey of attitudes among young Taiwanese toward markers of adulthood. While few of the respondents, who were aged 28 to 32 when surveyed in 2017, found marriage to be important, 95.8 percent believed that being responsible for oneself should take precedence, data showed. Economic independence came in
SHRINKING FEMALE POPULATION: Last year, 107.74 boys were born for every 100 girls in Taiwan, which is a greater gender imbalance than in Japan and South Korea The Ministry of the Interior recorded 9,601 births in January, the first time the nation has produced fewer than 10,000 newborns in a single month, while different indicators showed that Taiwan might also be facing a population with increasingly fewer births, women and marriages. It comes after the ministry reported a record low 165,249 births last year, which was lower than the 173,156 deaths recorded last year. The nation experienced negative population growth for the first time last year, ministry data found. The number of births in January also dropped from a year earlier, when there were 12,510 births. In February, there were
The Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office has listed six people as suspects in a judicial investigation into a fatal train crash on Friday last week. Fifty people were killed and more than 200 were injured when the Taroko Express No. 408 train slammed into a crane truck that had slid onto the tracks near the entrance of Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林). The office also summoned six officials at the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) Hualien Engineering Section for questioning about alleged illegal business operations and unsafe work conditions by Yi Hsiang Industry Co and Tung Hsin Construction Co, the two
KEEPING FOCUSED: Premier Su Tseng-chang was said to have commended Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung, but said the tragedy takes priority Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has submitted a verbal resignation in the wake of the Taroko Express No. 408 train crash two days ago, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday. In a call, Lin told Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) that he wished to step down, to take responsibility for the deadliest accident involving a Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) train in 40 years. As of press time last night, the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office had revised the death toll from 51, which had been reported on the previous day, to 50, after DNA testing showed that what had
RSS