Erebus Motorsport has begun the production of protective medical equipment that will be distributed across Australian hospitals.
As reported by motorsport.com, Erebus has begun working alongside Supercars medical delegate Dr Carl Lee to develop protective equipment to aid in the fight against COVID-19.
Australia’s death toll stands at 16 with 3873 Australians testing positive to COVID-19.
Erebus team boss Barry Ryan said the idea arose from Anton De Pasquale’s race engineer Mirko De Rosa.
“It’s a challenging time and all Australians need to do all they can to help,” said Ryan.
“We are in a fortunate position where we have the ability to make this shift in our operations and help our health care workers and patients.
“One of our engineers has family isolated in Italy, so the effects of this virus have hit close to home for us.
“Mirko approached me with the idea of making ventilation masks and in collaboration with Dr Carl Le, we have used our 3D printer to design and further develop ventilation masks for [doctors and health workers] that are based on underwater snorkelling masks.
“Rather than developing something complicated, these cost-effective masks with a 3D printed adaptor and easily replaceable P2 filtration, can be mass produced and go straight away to health care workers on the front line – who are at high risk.”
Dr Carl Lee went on to explain that the newly designed ventilated masks could be crucial in keeping doctors healthy while treating intubating patients.
“One of the riskiest times for a health care worker is when a patient is particularly unwell and needs to be intubated,”
said Dr Le.
“Because these workers must be in very close proximity to the patient, this box can provide an additional physical barrier.
“Every emergency department or ICU has wall suction, so we modified the box, which can vacuum potential droplets away from the area.’’
Dr Carl and Erebus Motorsport are also now looking for a solution for two-way communications in and out of isolation rooms.
Image: Erebus Motorsport
