Warrendale company unveils new device to help guard medical workers from coronavirus - TribLIVE

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A North Hills company with five decades of experience manufacturing products for the airline and railroad industries has turned its attention to creating a new protective device that safeguards front-line medical workers while treating patients suffering from covid-19 and other airborne illnesses.

Magee Plastics Co. in Warrendale has developed a transparent plastic box that is placed around a patient’s head while they undergo procedures such as intubation, which is the process of inserting a tube through the mouth and into a person’s airway.

The box helps limit exposure to coughed droplets and aerosol products used during medical procedures.

“One of our employees came to us and said since we make aircraft interior parts, could we make these covid boxes?” said Charles W.C. Story, president of Magee Plastics.

“So we looked into it, reached out to our health care network in the region, and we got together with (Allegheny Health Network) to design a new box to help front-line health care workers,” he said during a media tour of the plant on Tuesday.

The box was developed with the help of a $150,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

Part of the nonprofit’s responses to the coronavirus pandemic was to commit $15 million in funding for the fight, which included money for innovative ideas from companies to help safeguard medical professionals.

“One of the things we are most interested in is repurposing manufacturing to produce personal protective equipment,” said Sam Reiman, the foundation’s director.

Another goal for the funding is to help sustain jobs by keeping people working during the state-mandated shutdown of non-essential businesses, Reiman said.

Magee faced a sharp downturn in business as a result of the reduction in air travel during the pandemic.

But company officials said the additional work producing the medical boxes helped keep its 93 employees working.

The boxes are being tested by Carnegie Mellon University, which is using aerosol sprays to determine their effectiveness at containing airborne substances, said Dr. JP Lawrence, head of AHN’s Anesthesiology Institute.

Lawrence said the tests “are showing that the aerosols are not spread far beyond the box with the correct draping.”

He said the devices are being shipped to AHN hospitals as well as the Butler Health System, Excela Health, Heritage Valley Health System, St. Clair Hospital Group and hospitals in the Erie area.

Lawrence said the boxes are an ideal size — tall enough to give medical professionals room to work while a patient is lying in bed.

The box also has ports through which tubing and other equipment can be passed as well as openings for medical workers to place their hands while treating patients.

The boxes are the correct size for an operating room table and are tapered so they can be stacked for storage.

“We’ll be using them at the beginning and end of operations while we’re placing patients asleep and waking them up from their surgical procedure,” Lawrence said.

They also will be useful for procedures and treatments in emergency rooms and intensive care units when aerosol medications such nebulizer treatments are being dispensed.

Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tony at 724-772-6368, tlarussa@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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