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Victor Ty
Description
Victor Ty - Fall 2009 - NYU Langone Health Oncology Clinical Research Manager
I am one of a group called Maker Nurses comprised of identified nurses, clinicians, therapists, MDs and child life specialist who innovate medical and non-medical interventions to better the experiences of patients. As you may know I design and build Lego Medial Models of medical equipment such as MRIs, CTs, linear accelerators etc. I have also been involved with the Maker community including the 3D printing community.
I have been monitoring the pandemic closely since it broke out in the news in Dec 2019. When it finally hit home in NYC, including the shortage of PPE, I looked at my supplies and inventory of materials from which I could make the most use. I decided to make face shields, since I had clear acetate sheets from my days at LAGCC attending Dr. Grozav’s microbiology class. I used this for my reports back then. I also had some inventory of elastic from fashion career days and more importantly I have a 3D printer.
I started looking into a face shield design that was already out there and I got in contact a couple from upstate NY that had a design ready.The first prototype was perfect and took 6hrs to make. So, I made a plan to print 3-4 face shields daily. I started printing on 3/21 and by 3/23, with my wife, our older son and I started to have symptoms. In a couple if days we all came down with COVID 19. I continued printing and I'm still printing daily for a little more than 5 weeks now. I reached out to my 3D colleagues here and Boston and they linked me to a 3D printing outfit at the Brooklyn Navy Yard called Ultimaker. In a few days they were also printing for NYU and the rest of the hospitals in NYC.
I had only requested 50 pieces from them and at that time, I had about 30 completed myself. I have since printed about 120 from my printer. Since my hospital was getting a fair amount from Ultimaker, I offered the ones I made to my fellow nursing family of co-workers: from my colleagues from LAGCC to the units at Maimonides, and to the pulmonary service at NYU as they were in front and center that really needed extra PPE’s. I also provided some of the oncologists that were being deployed to the COVID-19 floors.
My face shields went as far away as San Diego, CA; Northern NJ and Upstate NY. Almost all the hospitals, both HHC and private hospitals, where places where my friends and family worked. Although we are now on the downslope, we continue to print here at home, as we anticipate more need in the near future.