NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association donated 54,000 N95 masks to the health system and volunteers at Riverside Regional are working to repair them.
The donated masks were not defective, they just needed the elastic straps replaced which is a common fix for the Kimberly-Clark™ N95 Respirator and Surgical Masks.
“The donation of these masks was not just here in Virginia,” said Riverside’s Director of Volunteer Services Carolyn Smith. “You can read stories about them being repaired all over the country and we’re thrilled we can use our volunteer corps, and some of our team members, to do this work.”
Due to the nation’s elastic shortage, the team at Riverside found a unique way to repair the masks.
“We turned to tourniquets and zip ties. It is definitely a production,” Smith said. “Our volunteers pull the old elastic out, punch holes in the corner of the masks, cut the tourniquet material into two pieces, thread them through the mask and then use zip ties to secure it all before repackaging.”
While the masks are not needed right now at Riverside, the team is making sure they are prepared but also helping out fellow healthcare workers.
“Riverside is committed to helping other partners in the community who do need this personal protective equipment and we’ve already donated several boxes of these repaired masks to a non-Riverside facility who needed them,” Smith said. “As a community, we are all in this together and where we can we are trying to donate and pay forward the kindness and support that has come our way.”
