ER Doc Says EverShower May Lower Risk of Exposing Others to COVID-19

PRESS RELEASE

Doctors in America are working in arguably the most intense and strenuous conditions since the 1918 Influenza pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is complicating doctors’ lives not only in the hospital, but in their homes as well by causing them to second guess if they are putting their families’ health in jeopardy with possible exposure to the virus.

Dr. David Moon is fighting on the front line of COVID-19 at the Rose Medical Center Emergency Room in Denver, Colorado. Despite his meticulous precautions, he has been dealing with the fear of exposing his family to the virus. Moon began looking for a way to completely decontaminate himself before ever stepping foot inside his home and came across VanDOit’s EverShower. The concept was exactly what he was looking for. The EverShower, a portable, pop-up shower that can work in conjunction with a hot water system and only requires three liters of water to operate, would allow Moon to shower outside his home and give him a greater peace of mind that his family would be safe from exposure to the virus.

As the only U.S. distributor of this Australian-based product, VanDOit is looking to do all they can to play a role in providing safer sanitation practices to healthcare professionals and other individuals who need to come and go from their homes during this time.

“Working in the ER is especially terrifying because people are walking in off the streets with symptoms, and everyone has potential of having the virus.” Moon said. “You’re covered in PPE (personal protective equipment). During and after my shifts, I am especially diligent in regard to washing hands, arms, face and change of clothes. I don't really have any showers available for emergency room physicians at our hospital, plus I wouldn't trust the shower room with other high risk healthcare professionals donning/doffing their clothes in a shared setting. Currently, when I get home after a shift, I have to walk 50-feet through the house to get to the nearest shower, potentially exposing my family to COVID-19. This led me to the idea of having a portable camp shower in my garage so I can decontaminate before entering my house.”

Moon’s wife, Sopheap Na is a physician at the VA Medical Center.

“She will be very grateful for having an EverShower also. Being able to decontaminate ourselves in the garage prior to entering the home gives us a great sense of relief in regard to the health of our 8-year-old son,” Moon said.

A few weeks ago, Moon was looking into ways to be prepared if he needed to completely isolate himself from his family. He planned to isolate in his backyard in a heavy-duty winter tent, but wasn’t sure how he would shower. After researching portable camping showers online, he came across the EverShower. He realized he could even use the shower if it was snowing, because it is completely enclosed and can be used in conjunction with a hot water system.

He reached out to the company on Facebook to find out they were almost out of stock and don’t ship outside of Australia. He began researching who supplied them in North America and found that VanDOit was the only U.S. distributor. Coincidentally, he had been in touch with VanDOit over the past year about potentially getting one of their camper vans.

“As my kid gets older, he can keep up with more hiking and mountain biking, so I’d been looking into camper vans,” Moon said. “I didn’t know anything about portable camping showers. For future camping trips, I was looking into public showers, but those aren’t super clean. I think with this pandemic, people will start thinking about things like that more in the future.”

Moon believes the EverShower could be very beneficial to other healthcare professionals and individuals.

“You would hate to bring the virus back to other people as a healthcare worker,” Moon said. “You would feel bad if you didn’t do everything you could to prevent transmitting it to your loved ones. Having access to a portable hot shower—especially since it’s April here in Colorado and it’s going to be cold in most people’s garages—I can do my final step to decontaminate before taking a step in the house, plus I can be comfortable doing it.”

Moon said he was impressed when he came across the EverShower online and watched a video of the inventor, Larry Jay Tofler taking a 20-minute shower.

“It looked very steamy and comfortable,” Moon said. “It wouldn’t be much of a chore. It would be pretty easy and comfortable to do, just like the shower in your house. So, I think healthcare professionals, especially with this pandemic, would be more willing to do it, but I don’t think they know about it, because I didn’t know about it. Just like after a hard day of camping or riding your bike, you’re tired and you don’t want to go find a shower, so you just lay in your own sweat, but if you had that option readily available, especially a hot shower, then you’d be much more clean. I think this pandemic makes everyone think about what they usually do. I think if more people knew about this product, they would use it. I think it’s an awesome system.

Moon and his wife need to do their best to stay healthy, not only to continue working on the front line of COVID-19, but also to care for their son.

“One way we’ve been impacted by this pandemic is that none of our family members want to come in contact with us, because we’re high risk for exposure,” Moon said. “So they can’t help with childcare.”

Moon is currently homeschooling his son during the day, while his wife Sopheap is at work, before he goes to work nights at the emergency room.

Moon’s emergency room in Denver is facing the issue of limited PPE like the rest of the nation. Ford has donated industrial face masks to his hospital to help relieve the shortage of PPE.

“I’m wearing gloves the whole shift, so my hands are constantly getting sweaty,” Moon said. “We’re good on gloves, but just in case things keep getting worse, we have to be more careful with our equipment, so I’m cleaning my gloves with hand sanitizer so I don’t use as many. I’m always wearing a gown. True waterproof gowns are hard to find right now. They’re all gone. You can’t buy them online.”

During his shift, Moon is covered from head to toe in PPE and rotates between a series of eight gowns and suits in between patients.

According to Moon, each staff member is limited to one face mask per shift to conserve equipment.

When treating high-risk patients, the staff is required to wear “Level 1” PPE. This would be an N95 mask, face shield, protective eye goggles, gloves, surgical cap, waterproof gown and booties.

“The N95 mask won’t fit everyone’s face completely, so they test you when you get fitted and see if you can smell a fragrance that they release a certain amount of,” Moon said. “If you can smell it, you don’t have a tight seal, so it’s not fitting well. So they use a space suit with a mask called a ‘PAPR’ that oxygen comes through. Since N95 works for me, I do that because it’s easier to get into, but twenty-five percent of people have to use the HAZMAT suit. With high-risk patients that have significant respiratory issues that need intubated and put on a ventilator, we have to suit up to Level 1 because it’s an extremely high-risk procedure.”

Moon said hospitals are limiting and monitoring entryways for visitors, nurses and physicians, and taking temperatures with an infrared thermometer that requires no physical contact.

According to Moon, Denver had the potential for rapidly increasing cases two to three weeks ago when Vail and Breckenridge ski country in Eagle County and Summit County were getting a high rate of cases between the five to six ski resorts in the area, because of its popularity as a tourist area this time of year.

“It was getting pretty scary there,” Moon said. “Then it transferred into Denver ending in March and that’s when I was getting pretty terrified and started researching how I can limit my viral load on my body to my family.”

Moon is hopeful the cases in Colorado are leveling off.

“Data is a couple days behind on the Colorado Health page,” Moon said. “The number of deaths is trending down each day. I’m not counting cases, because that’s a function of testing available. It most recently jumped from five to 12 deaths in one day, but hopefully that’s just a blip and not the beginning of exponential increase. It’s too early to tell. I wouldn’t say we’re at the New York, California or Washington level, but there was a potential for that to be the case.”

Moon advises people to follow guidelines and to stay home as much as possible.

“The pandemic is still prevalent now. Wear face masks,” Moon said. “Cloth masks are fine for the general public now since there is a national shortage of medical face masks. Wear plastic gloves. If you need to cough or sneeze, cover your mouth with your arm. Constantly be washing your hands and sanitizing your gloves. At the grocery store, wipe things down before putting them into your car and before you take them into your home. Now is the time to be obsessive compulsive about germs. Hygiene is really important. Even with all of these measures, you might come in contact with the virus on your skin. If you go outside, change your clothes before you come back in and then shower. Always be vigilant. Do what you can. Stay home when you’re sick, especially when we start to go back into society.”

If you are interested in purchasing an EverShower, please contact kensie@vandoit.com with the subject line “EverShower.”

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the press release above belong solely to the company/vendor/author and do not necessarily reflect those of EMS World or HMP.