FGCU student 3D prints PPE for health care workers

One Southwest Florida student is fulfilling the need for personal protective equipment within our community by using a little bit of knowledge from his college career.

Florida Gulf Coast University student Scott Presbrey has made it his mission to protect those helping people with COVID-19 by printing away the shortage of equipment.

“I’m fulfilling what’s become a passion of mine. This is what I wanna do, I want to design and manufacture medical devices and this is part of the process. It’s fulfilling, it’s very for fulfilling. I get a lot of satisfaction out of this,” he said.

The bioengineering student is using 3D printers to create face shields for frontline workers.

“My father is a health care provider here in Lee County and I was talking to him about the shortage of PPE. I asked him how is Lee Health doing, how are our local healthcare workers doing with PPE? I know there’s a national shortage. He said, you know they’re not doing well, so I figured, why not print one out and try it out?”

Presbrey has already made and donated 350 shields, which are reusable.

“I’m certainly going to do my best to make a difference and donate what I can. What I can donate definitely is some of my time, some of my resources, but definitely my machines in my production capacity.”

Presbrey’s donations include a stack of visors, a stack of transparent sheets and directions on how to sanitize the shields properly.

His goal is to produce 125 to 150 in a day.

“It’s essential that they have the protection that they need,” he said.

For more information, Scott Presbrey can be reached by email at scottypres@gmail.com or 3ddeluxestore@gmail.com. His website is 3ddeluxe.com.