Tern partners with Hoop Hero for new medical worker protector

Hoop Hero is a foundation that is raising funds for a number of causes, now including an ‘Aerosol box’ that protects medical workers from getting contaminated with Covid-19.

Fitting over the patient’s head while doctors intubate the patient for a ventilator, Hoop Hero protects health workers during this process. It’s a procedure which is particularly risky in terms of exposing the health worker to the virus, as they are close to the patient’s airways and cough droplets (aerosol spray).

Hoop Hero is working with Tern to raise some funds as there have been more requests for boxes than Tern’s donation budget.

Tern Bicycle founder Josh Hon filled CIN on the backstory:

“I read an article in the news about the box invented by the Taiwan doctor and I was touched that he open-sourced the design. I also considered that the design was simple but practical – and importantly, not so difficult to manufacture. In a way, it’s a good representation of Taiwan’s ingenuity. Like many people, I was upset to hear about the shortage of PPE gear for our medical professionals.

“I then reached out to an old friend from college, Terry Cussen. His wife, Dr. Sara Cheng, happens to be an anesthesiologist and the type of doctor that would actually be using the box. Before sinking a lot of time (and money) into this project, I wanted to quickly get her opinion on whether something like this would work in a US medical setting. She confirmed that it seemed like it would be helpful. I then asked Terry if he’d be up for re-designing the box to fit US beds, US workers, and make the box stackable for cheaper freight. Considering that his own wife would be using the box and considering that he’s a Stanford Product Design graduate working in a medical devices company, he seemed an eminent choice.

“Terry redid the design in two days. Our super-star sourcer, Milly Chen, then went and talked to one of our vendors and got them to work over the weekend and get a prototype done in 2 days. 5 days later, Terry had the box in his hands. From start of conversation with Sara and Terry, it was something like 10 days. Another 5 days later and the first 30 boxes shipped out. And yesterday, we sent out another 60 boxes to our US office where they’ll split the shipments up to go direct to the hospitals that have requested them. We have about 40 hospitals that have requested the boxes.”

The money from Hoop Hero’s Gofundme page will go into Aerosol box production and shipping to hospitals in need.

There’s more on the Gofundme page.