Local operating room workers get extra protection from COVID-19
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Personal protective equipment is the standard for keeping healthcare workers from being exposed to potentially infectious bodily fluids of their patients, including those infected with the coronavirus.
But those who work in the operating rooms at Bowling Green’s TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital now have an additional line of protection. Dr. Imran Hamid, an anesthesiologist at the hospital, has been working with a new barrier.
Hamid says it works by enclosing the patient’s head so doctors can insert a breathing tube into the patient’s throat and lungs without being splashed with lung secretions or contents from inside the patient’s stomach.
But this simple device could protect more than just the people working in the operating room. Hamid believes having hospital workers not being exposed to dangerous viruses and bacteria means less of a chance of those workers falling ill and spreading it to friends and family members in the community.
The idea was brought to Bowling Green by cardiologist Dr. Charles Lim whose brother started using them on the west coast after they saw them used in other places. Lim then decided to have some made for the operating rooms at TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital.
In all, 10 intubation boxes were made for the hospital and they will likely. He says he’s happy the boxes are available to benefit the operating room employees.
