2 minute read
IN THE NEWS
J.P. McFadden ’94 & Family Helped Keep Healthcare Workers Safe
from the Coronavirus
When Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia was running out of face shields to protect its emergency room workers amid the coronavirus pandemic last March, employees were asked to try to come up with an alternative until an expected shipment arrived. J.P. McFadden ’94, Einstein’s network director of construction, brought the problem to three top-notch innovators: his children, Seamus, 11, Carly, 10, and Ruairi, 7.
Working from a picture of an actual face shield, the McFadden family, including Mr. McFadden’s wife, Katie, prototyped a substitute device in a single evening using pool noodles, stretchy headbands, clear vinyl page protectors and duct tape. In a matter of days, hospital maintenance staffers had crafted more than 1,000 of the McFadden-designed face shields, and they were being used in the emergency department and throughout the hospital to keep healthcare workers safe from the highly transmissible coronavirus.
The story of outside-the-box thinking and caring for others caught the attention of Philadelphia-area media outlets. In an Action News segment that aired on March 27, community journalist Ashley Johnson described the face-shield-making effort as a “colorful, all-hands-on-deck mission to save the lives of healthcare workers at Einstein Hospital” and credited the McFadden children as the surprise “masterminds behind all of this.” A few days later, writer Peg DeGrassa published a story in the Delaware County Daily Times that explained how hospital staff members took the McFaddens’ model, made “a dash for supplies to Staples, CVS and the dollar store,” and “created an assembly line around a large table in the carpentry shop” to A sample of the face begin producing the shields. They shields fabricated by Einstein Medical made 200 on the first day that Center staff members were immediately put to use in the using the McFadden family’s prototype. emergency department, for which
The “masterminds:” (left to right) Seamus, Ruairi and Carly McFadden.
Dr. Ryan Overberger, an emergency medicine physician and medical director for the hospital’s emergency response team, was grateful.
“Face shields are used to protect the eyes of healthcare workers. Their previous use was restricted to patients with certain contagious diseases. These days, because of the risk of COVID-19, they’re used with every patient who comes into the emergency room, along with masks,” Dr. Overberger said. Ms. DeGrassa reported that he “was especially grateful for the homemade version because he was notified that the anticipated delivery of 5,000 face shields was reduced to 500. ‘The supply chain is really disrupted and this is a great example of Katie and J.P. McFadden ’94 ingenuity,’ he said.” and their children.
In the days after coming up with their innovative design, the McFadden kids became “more aware of what is going on outside the house and of the shortages,” according to their dad, and they were cognizant of the impact their project was having on others. “They asked me if people liked the shields, and if I saw people wearing them,” he said. “They are proud that they can help keep people safe.” ■
View the Action News segment at:
www.blair.edu/mcfadden-news
Read the Delaware County Daily Times article at:
