Hamden Hall seventh grader John Raymond Wallis shows off one of the plastic ear-saver adapters he produced with his in-home 3D printer.
A Hamden private school is 3D printing “ear-saver adapters” to ease discomfort among hospital workers, who wear face masks during long shifts as they fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hamden Hall Country Day School’s adapters take the pressure of the mask off workers’ ears and help prevent irritation and chafing.
Yale New Haven Hospital nurse practitioner Christine Fontana said that wearing a mask for a 12-hour shift is a new experience for healthcare workers. She said that the face mask elastic can become irritating and uncomfortable.
“Since you can’t take your mask off, there’s no relief in sight for hospital staff who are experiencing severe irritation and chafing,” Fontana said. “Some workers are even wearing two face masks at a time.”
One of Hamden Hall’s 3D printers being used to produce fask mask ear-saver adapters.
Hamden Hall has its own 3D printers, which faculty are using to produce the ear-saver adapters.
Chris Buckley, a technician in the school’s MakerSpace Design Lab, found that he was able to produce five to six of the strap holders every two hours on the school’s 3D printers. He has since created several hundred and distributed them to medical staff at Yale New Haven Hospital. Buckley has sent the adapters to other hospitals throughout the country as well, such as Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, New York’s Westchester Medical Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
This week, Buckley started training middle school students who have 3D printers in their homes to help out. (Buckley sterilizes the strap holders before he sends them out.)
Yale New Haven Hospital nurse practitioner Christine Fontana (left) and a colleague show off the ear-saver adapters produced by Hamden Hall Country Day School.
Students who do not have 3D printers in their homes are contributing as well. Middle school English teachers Lisa Daly and Allison Ehrenreich asked seventh and eighth grade students to create hand-written cards and digital art to thank healthcare workers for their efforts during the pandemic.
“This is a way for us to give back to the community and to show appreciation for our healthcare workers who are doing so much for us right now,” said Daly.
Ehrenreich noted that all have the ability to make a thank-you card “for the people who are putting their lives on the line to help our community and to keep us as safe as possible.”
Thank you to everybody who is pitching in and sewing masks, printing 3-D face shields, seeing a need for mask ear irritations and finding a solution and making ear protectors for medical workers. It is the ingenuity and initiative of the citizens who are doing everything they can to help in this time of crisis who make this country great!