Good Samaritans make face shields for health care workers fighting the coronavirus

Walking through his Petaluma factory, Architectural Plastics, Blake Miremont stopped at a stack of trays - the kind used to serve meals to bedridden patients.

Plucking one from the stack Tuesday, he tossed it 12 feet in the air. “We make these of a pretty robust plastic,” he noted, an instant before the tray came clattering to the polished concrete floor. It didn’t break, proving his point.

Miremont and his wife, Virginia, spent 3½ years renovating this factory. The upgrades were just about finished when the coronavirus arrived.

“Our first thought was, ‘Oh crap, we have to shut down,’” said Miremont, who has 13 employees. He soon realized he’d have to keep his doors open, to provide businesses with essential items such as hospital trays and clear acrylic sneeze guards to protect bank tellers and cashiers at supermarkets and other retail outlets.

However, the product he’s most excited about making will be the least profitable. Miremont has ordered materials for 60,000 face shields, and retooled his 16,000-square-foot factory to mass produce them. He’ll charge for some of the shields - enough to cover some of his costs - and donate the others to area hospitals and first responders.

He is one of many area residents and businesses responding to what could become - and in some cases already is - a critical shortage of personal protective equipment for health care workers on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus: gloves, gowns, face masks and face shields.

No one asked Miremont to do this. His wife’s sister, a hospital administrator with Sutter Health in the Fresno area, alerted him to a shortage of face shields where she worked. A friend in Southern California told him she’d been reusing a disposable face shield.

“Obviously, if our health care workers get sick, that’s not a great thing for them or us,” he said. “So we’re gonna start cranking these out.”

On Monday afternoon, Jemetha Cosgrove held up a face shield she’d made on the 3D printer in her Petaluma house. “This one is pretty sturdy. But it takes five hours to print.

“This one takes a lot less time,” she said, holding up a slightly different model. Better still, the holes on the clear plastic rectangle - where it attaches to the headband - “are aligned to a standard three-hole punch.”

Cosgrove is willing to sacrifice some sturdiness in order to make as many shields as possible. While she can only produce a few per day, she’s on the lookout for others in the North Bay who own 3D printers, and would like to join her in this crusade. Those interested can connect with Cosgrove on the Facebook page, Making a Difference Sonoma County.

“If we pull our resources together,” she said, “we can get a little production line set up.”

While she doesn’t know yet to whom she’ll donate her homemade plastic shields, she knows there is a need.

“We definitely have a need for face shields,” said a nurse who works on the “Covid floor” of Kaiser Permanente’s hospital in Santa Rosa, and asked for anonymity because she’s not authorized to speak to the media. “At the moment, I’m using a pair of ill-fitting goggles.”

What kind of goggles?

“Cheapies from a hardware store. I wear them over my glasses,” she said.

Kaiser did not respond on Tuesday to a reporter’s questions about whether it needs, or is accepting donations of equipment such as face shields. Over the weekend a contingent of good Samaritans from Santa Rosa’s Home Depot store dropped off 79 face shields to three area hospitals. Roughly a third of those were handed to nurses outside the entrance to Kaiser’s emergency room.

After expressing gratitude for donations already received, a spokesperson for Sutter Health said it is accepting donations of medical supplies, including protective equipment such as face shields, “so long as they meet appropriate criteria.” Products should be new and undamaged. Those interested in donating may call local Sutter affiliates, or 1-844-987-6099.

Cosgrove paid around $800 for her Prusa 3D printer, which whirred busily behind her on a desk across from her sewing machine. Her 7-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son were “sequestered” upstairs. She works with the printer “as a hobbyist,” she said, “and as a project leader for my 4H group.”

“I think it’s a shame that we’re relying on hobbyists” to make up the shortfall of protective equipment for hospitals. “But hey, whatever gets the job done.”

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ausmurph88.