www.BXTimes.com BRONX WEEKLY May 3, 2020 2
BY JASON COHEN
An Upper West Side student
is doing much more
than learning virtually.
Sam O’Hara is making face
shields for front line workers
at hospitals, including
St. Barnabas.
O’Hara is the captain
of his high school robotics
team and once used 3D
printing to build a working
140-piece model jet engine,
but he never imagined doing
anything like this.
The 17-year-old got a 3D
printer for Christmas and
started off by making some
toys for his sister. But when
COVID-19 arrived, the
youngster knew he wanted
to pitch in.
“I just wanted to help
the hospitals,” he told the
Bronx Times.
Barnabas became a benefi
ciary because his parents
Jonathan and Mandy
are long-time friends of Dr.
Janine Adjo, chair of the St.
Barnabas Department of
Pediatrics. Coincidentally,
his pediatrician mother began
her career at St. Barnabas
before the two doctors
ever met.
When he decided in
March to help the medical
community, O’Hara sought
out Jake Lee, a Columbia
University student and key
fi gure in the charity NYCMakesPPE.
After receiving
printer fi les from Lee
for an appropriately vetted
face shield design, he began
in making homemade face
shields.
According to O’Hara,
although his father bought
two additional printers to
help him create face shields,
the process was not easy. At
fi rst it took him two hours
to make one shield and a total
of four or fi ve a day. But
eventually he got a system
down.
“I could only print two
at a time and they took
90 minutes each,” he explained.
“This production
rate wasn’t going to cut it.
The PPE I make needs to be
functional but at the same
time, I’d like to cover, literally,
as many healthcare
workers as possible.”
There was also the issue
of resetting printers after
each batch fi nishes. This
meant waking up every
two hours nightly, which,
when O’Hara started oversleeping
for online classes,
didn’t bode well with his
parents or teachers.
“To solve this I explored
several solutions, ranging
from custom computer code
that knocks face shields
off the printer automatically
and staying awake in
shifts.” The best idea, he
found, was much simpler:
stack the shields and print
20 at once. “I can now leave
it on while I’m sleeping,” he
said.
With help from his father,
Jonathan, NYCMakesPPE
and upstate retailer G & S
Glass Inc., O’Hara has since
recruited others to do the
same. He has reached out to
his robotic teammates and
through a teacher at his
school, fellow 3D afi cionados
on social media, to help
the cause while following
safety, quality and labeling
guidelines.
In total, he has printed
and distributed nearly
1,200 face shields to hospitals,
ambulance corps
and visiting nurses, 180 of
which ended up at St. Barnabas
Hospital, with more to
come.
O’Hara, who plans to attend
Purdue University in
the fall with plans to become
an aerospace engineer, said
the cost of his supplies is
relatively small. The plastic
used to make 150 shields, for
example, runs $20, with the
biggest investment made in
terms of his time.
“I’m disappointed big
companies aren’t doing
this,” he said. “It doesn’t
make sense that a high
school student is doing
this.”
Sam O’Hara of the UWS makes face shields for St. Barnabas using a 3D printer.
Photo courtesy of Sam O’Hara
Manhattan student makes
nearly 200 face shields for
Bronx hospital
PAID DEATH NOTICES
To place an announcement in
Death Notice, In Memoriam,
Sympathy or
Cards of Thanks
Please Call Celeste 718-260-2554
or e-mail
calamin@schnepsmedia.com
link
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
link