MEMPHIS, Tennessee —
Healthcare workers at Mid-South hospitals are now better protected thanks to the skills of a FedEx aircraft mechanic.
Shawn Yarbro’s wife, Stephanie Yarbro, a nurse at Baptist Memorial Hospital, told him about the need for an intubation box, a shield of sorts, which protects workers from infection while intubating a patient.
Stephanie Yarbo is a nurse who works with infectious disease Dr. Imad Omer, who provided video to Yarbro of what other hospitals were using across the nation.
“So I texted her 2pm on the first of April and I said ‘hey do you know anybody that could perhaps could put this together?’ and she said ‘well, I think I do know somebody,’” Dr. Omer explained.
A high percentage of COVID-19 patients require intubation procedure in order to clear their airway so they could breathe. It’s a process that can expose healthcare workers to infection.
3 hours after the request from Dr. Omer, Stephanie Yarbro told him that her husband had already started construction on the first batch of intubation boxes. Shawn Yarbro, with the help of his son, has already made 20 of them and delivered them to hospitals across Memphis.
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“At midnight they brought the boxes to the hospital. It was pretty amazing. They got right on it and delivered three boxes,” Dr. Omer said.
Shawn Yarbro released this statement: “The first box we built was functional, but it’s not a representation of what we can do. So, we went online and learned how to bend materials. We created kind of an assembly line in the shop. We are now on our third design. The very first night that we delivered it, they used it twice."
“When a patient is ill and they need to be placed on a ventilator, this box kind of fits over them and then the person doing the intubation is able to stand behind them and not expose themselves or the other people in the vicinity to any secretions that the patient might have,” Dr. Omer said.
Baptist Hospitals are using these regularly now. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Regional One also have one.
“It gives me confidence that we have one more thing that allows people to be safer,” Dr. Omer said.
Each box costs approximately $160 to make with all the materials, but Yarbro is making these out of his own money. Other hospitals have requested some throughout the city, so as you can imagine, he and his son are busy at work.