Nurse shares move-by-step instructions for making mask with up to 99.5% filtration efficiency

San AntonioUpdate: Nurse Tommye Austin is sharing her sample and action-by-action recommendations for making a mask with up to 99.5% filtration effectiveness. The pattern is for non-professional use only and is remaining offered with the being familiar with that UHS are unable to assurance that some others applying this style and design will have a mask as helpful as the 1 developed by Austin.

  • Cotton weave fabric or surgical drape
  • AC Filter content with a MERV ranking of >13 or improved
  • All-goal thread
  • Bobbin thread
  • 1/8 inch elastic (20 inches for every mask)
  • Scissors
  • Swimmer’s tape
  1. Slash two 12 x12 items of AC filter materials with a Merv ranking of 13 or larger. Minimize two pieces of 1/8 inch elastic: neck piece is 8 inches and head parts is 10 inches. Make sure you measure your head and neck if you want a tighter seal.
  2. Fold the 12 x 12 inch sq. of fabric in 50 percent.
  3. Fold Material 1 inch upward on just about every side to make air pocket. This fold generates the air pocket that will allow the user to breathe much better and keep away from carbon dioxide make up.
  4. Evaluate mask throughout the face from cheek to cheek and mark.
  5. Push down seams at top of mask for ½ inches
  6. Trim edges across the top of the mask
  7. Insert metal nose piece and sew it in put.
  8. Sew just about every stop elastic to each and every corner at the leading of the mask. Stitch all levels alongside one another using a straight sew. The filter materials really should be sandwiched between levels of the cotton cloth or surgical drape.

**Simply click in this article if you are unable to perspective the doc with images and instructions under.

Initial: The chief executive nurse at College Health and fitness Procedure has invested the past couple of months coming up with a mask that was examined to have far better filtration than the N-95 masks.

Nurse Tommye Austin claimed her overall goal was to be certain that health-related staff from all in excess of have sufficient particular protective equipment in circumstance a achievable shortage usually takes put.

“In the celebration that we get a surge of COVID-19 people in San Antonio, which is predicted to take place in May, we are producing positive we have satisfactory and adequate gear for staff,” Austin claimed. “Once we uncovered that the (Centers for Illness Command and Prevention) experienced supplied us the capacity to build masks, fairly than working with a bandana or a handkerchief, we made the decision to look at creating our individual N-95.”

Austin said she went to Lowe’s to get AC filters.

“We had this AC filter content we purchased from Houston, Texas,” Austin said. “We started out producing a mask that would healthy like an N-95, that would have that whole seal across the experience so that if you set it on, you would have a seal related to the recent N-95 we use.”

Area nurse designs mask with 99.5% filtration efficiency

Austin claimed immediately after acquiring the masks tested by the Southwest Investigate Institute, they had excellent success.

“The mask has a filtration fee of 99.5% with just one material and has a 97.8% filtration effectiveness with a different material we are working with,” Austin said. “So if the N-95 masks have a 95% filtration effectiveness, that signifies it can eliminate at the very least 95% of the virus or microbes hoping to get as a result of the mask.”

Austin reported they are planning for a feasible surge by stockpiling the masks if they need the added provide. She stated they will have the masks suit-tested for the employees, and the masks can be made use of at least 2 times with the sanitation gear they have in spot for the cleaning their N-95 masks.

“We have been functioning with the Southwest Research Institute in earning absolutely sure that we just not build a thing we believe is a excellent products but a thing that we know is a very good products by utilizing science,” Austin said. “It does not have what we connect with carbon dioxide buildup, which could make you dizzy or (give you) a headache. It is comfortab
le, and you can have on it for extensive periods of time.”

So far, they have been able to make 600 masks and hope to make 6,500 additional.

“We are also sharing our style with the other services in San Antonio and whoever demands the style and design,” Austin stated. “Hearing the stories from the nurses in New York and other hot places, it was just heartbreaking. As a nurse, we are to be advocates for people today, so my primary purpose was not to make cash off this mask or anything at all. The main goal of this mask was to continue to keep people today secure.”

You can learn how to make the masks by subsequent these guidance mentioned under:

**On Friday, a UHS spokesperson reported the pattern for the mask will be built out there on the UHS web site quickly.

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