City receives medical supplies to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19
Updated: Apr 14, 2020
By SARA VANDEN BERGE
Stephenville has added a new weapon to its arsenal in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.
Employees with Reach Wireline, a Fort Worth-based oilfield services company, are donating their time, material and facilities to manufacture containment boxes designed to protect healthcare workers exposed to patients with coronavirus.
With a nationwide shortage of N95 masks for healthcare workers, the boxes are made to fit over the faces of patients who have been intubated, protecting doctors and nurses against the spread of the virus.
Stephenville City Councilman Ricky Thurman helped secure the boxes for the hospital.
Thurman said he learned about the containment boxes from his sister-in-law who is a CRNA at a hospital in Decatur.
“I sent Reach Wireline an email and asked what it would take to get a couple of the boxes for our hospital,” Thurman said. “They told me they had a couple of them ready and could get them to us now. Tanner Roberts with Reach Wireline delivered them to Stephenville on Sunday.”
The boxes are being distributed across the nation at no charge.