Help us send masks to our hospitals!
Donation protected
Hello! My name is Sandy and I am a third year medical student in Pomona, California. As many of you may know, the number of people affected by COVID-19 has been accelerating exponentially nationwide, particularly in states like New York, Washington, and California. The amount of patients requiring hospital care and treatment will soon overwhelm the capacity of our healthcare system. Here's a helpful website that illustrates the amount of projected hospitalizations in each state depending on what and when measures are taken: https://covidactnow.org/. Our healthcare professionals on the frontlines - doctors, nurses, PAs, respiratory therapists, and more - are all putting their own health and the wellbeing of their families at stake in order to help those in need. We are running out of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) such as masks, face shields, and gowns necessary to keep our healthcare workers safe. Here's a news article depicting this situation: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-ppe-gear-equipment-n95-masks-medical-doctors-nurses/. Many providers are forced to reuse their N95 masks for up to 4-5 days due to this shortage. The CDC has also recently approved the use of homemade PPE such as bandanas as a crisis/alternative strategy when there is a lack of proper masks. These conditions are put in place in order to streamline care of these patients potentially affected by COVID-19, but entirely jeopardize the lives of our medical staff.
My colleagues and I have decided to mobilize our efforts and gather as many masks as we can to donate to our local hospitals. Arjun, a second year medical student, has been in contact with Pomona Valley Medical Center as well as Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo; both have said they are running extremely low on supplies and that the staff are instructed to not replace face masks unless they are VISIBLY soiled. They are accepting homemade face masks and any other mask donations available. Arjun, along with many fellow medical students, have started a team effort to hand craft numerous cotton masks. We will have a projected amount of 500 masks by this Friday. If you would like to contribute your own hand made masks, here is the link to the facebook group. Here are some photos of our team wearing the masks they've made!
In addition, after numerous phone calls and many hours searching online, we were able to locate a source that is willing to sell their last few hundred N95 masks at production price. There are a total of 500 masks, and we are expecting our first shipment of approximately 180 masks to arrive in the mail at the end of this week. The masks cost approximately $3.42 each, including shipping and handling. In the event that we do not receive this batch, we will try our best to reach out to other suppliers. In order to ensure complete transparency throughout this process, I will be updating this page with pictures of the masks when they arrive, a receipt of the total cost, and a list of hospitals we have donated the masks to. The money raised will go toward the N95 masks and the materials needed to make our homemade masks. All remaining funds will be donated to the GoFundMe's official COVID-19 Relief Fund.
We are currently in the process of reaching out to other local hospitals and accumulating a list of 5-10 potential recipients. Once it is finalized, we will post the names of the hospitals along with the number of masks that were donated to them.
Thank you for contributing to this effort to protect the health of our medical workers. We're all in this fight together!
My colleagues and I have decided to mobilize our efforts and gather as many masks as we can to donate to our local hospitals. Arjun, a second year medical student, has been in contact with Pomona Valley Medical Center as well as Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo; both have said they are running extremely low on supplies and that the staff are instructed to not replace face masks unless they are VISIBLY soiled. They are accepting homemade face masks and any other mask donations available. Arjun, along with many fellow medical students, have started a team effort to hand craft numerous cotton masks. We will have a projected amount of 500 masks by this Friday. If you would like to contribute your own hand made masks, here is the link to the facebook group. Here are some photos of our team wearing the masks they've made!
In addition, after numerous phone calls and many hours searching online, we were able to locate a source that is willing to sell their last few hundred N95 masks at production price. There are a total of 500 masks, and we are expecting our first shipment of approximately 180 masks to arrive in the mail at the end of this week. The masks cost approximately $3.42 each, including shipping and handling. In the event that we do not receive this batch, we will try our best to reach out to other suppliers. In order to ensure complete transparency throughout this process, I will be updating this page with pictures of the masks when they arrive, a receipt of the total cost, and a list of hospitals we have donated the masks to. The money raised will go toward the N95 masks and the materials needed to make our homemade masks. All remaining funds will be donated to the GoFundMe's official COVID-19 Relief Fund.
We are currently in the process of reaching out to other local hospitals and accumulating a list of 5-10 potential recipients. Once it is finalized, we will post the names of the hospitals along with the number of masks that were donated to them.
Thank you for contributing to this effort to protect the health of our medical workers. We're all in this fight together!
Fundraising team: Med Students Against COVID (4)
Sandy Chen
Organizer
Walnut, CA
Arjun Bakshi
Team member
David Ashley
Team member
Nikki Shah
Team member
