Peralta Woodworks manufacturing intubation boxes to help protect health care workers

Businesses across the country are doing what they can to help fight COVID-19. That includes local manufacturer Peralta Woodworks, Inc., which is producing intubation boxes to help protect health care workers.

Columbia, S.C. (WOLO) — Businesses across the country are doing what they can to help fight COVID-19. That includes local manufacturer Peralta Woodworks, Inc., which is producing intubation boxes to help protect health care workers.

It all started with a request from a friend.

“One of my friend’s wife is an ER doctor, and he reached out to me one day with pictures of what other folks were doing with intubation boxes and just asked for help trying to protect his wife while she was at work. And that’s how this thing got started,” said Ernie Peralta, President and Owner of Peralta Woodworks.

The intubation boxes act as another layer of protection for those health care workers treating patients with COVID-19.

“It’s excellent. Anything we can do at Peralta Woodworks to help our local community and the nation as a whole, we’re ready to do,” said Jet Thomas, an employee of Peralta Woodworks.

The box sits over a patient’s head and shoulders while they’re intubated. The box can then be sanitized, and reused for another patient.

“Even though the box is not completely sealed, you have space here and space here for their hands, and the other side is open. But while they’re getting intubated, it cuts down tremendously the amount of virus that gets spread out into the air,” said Peralta.

Peralta said that the pandemic hasn’t made things easy for his business or employees, but he’s glad to do what he can to help those on the front line against the virus.

“We’ve been in business now 10 years, and as a business that’s constantly growing, we have different challenges and COVID-19 has become a big challenge from that perspective. And for me, it feels really good that my wife and I are able to contribute our part during these hard times,” said Peralta. “My original involvement was just to help my friend with a box for his wife. But after learning how much exposure this box prevents the doctor from getting contaminated, it just makes it important for me to try to spread the word.”

For more information on the intubation boxes, click here.