MSPCA donates gear to hospitals
The MSPCA is stepping up to aid the fight against coronavirus, donating hundreds of masks, gowns and other types of personal protective gear to Massachusetts hospitals facing severe shortages during the deadly public health crisis.
“There are a lot of cries for donations of personal protective equipment from local hospitals. A couple local hospitals reached out to us also privately,” MSPCAAngell Dr. Virginia SinnottStutzman said in a video provided to the Herald.
“We decided as a group to start making cloth masks to use in surgery and donate everything that we could because their supplies are running low, and we have these available to give them today,” she said.
Boxes full of 300 isolation gowns, 220 N95 respirators, 200 Chemo Plus gowns, 24 face shields, 13 safety glasses and 2,1000 surgical masks from the MSPCA’s Angell Animal Medical Center were loaded into a van Friday afternoon for delivery to Massachusetts General Hospital.
The gear is typically used for the veterinary hospital’s procedures to help protect against animal-to-animal transmission of infection.
But as coronavirus rages, “health care workers are more at risk from catching this virus from a patient than we’re at risk of catching anything from our patients,” Sinnott-Stutzman said.
“We’re at a critical point in this pandemic, given the mounting cases in Massachusetts and the fact that the U.S. now has more infections than any other country,” Sinnott-Stutzman said.
Angell Animal Medical Center also lent its mechanical ventilator to Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. The MSPCA’s Nevins Farm in Methuen is sending 300 surgical masks to Lawrence General Hospital and 100 masks to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.
“We’re doing everything we can here to protect our staff, clients and animal patients — and we’re just as committed to helping our human medicine colleagues,” Sinnott-Stutzman said. “This donation of badly needed PPE reflects that.”