How a Virginia Beach company turned 240 hospital bed sheets into 2,000 masks

A roar filled the sprawling factory as workers fed beige fabric strips under rippling thread.

About a third of London Bridge Trading Co.'s 150 local employees, most of whom are women, might have otherwise been stitching camouflage into rucksacks or holsters. But when the machine operators showed up for work Monday, they had a new assignment.

Cut and sew 2,000 masks.

While the coronavirus pandemic has drained hospitals of protective medical supplies, the Virginia Beach manufacturer has stepped up to fill a crucial need.

Following a day of making prototypes and testing, the mask-making began in earnest. David Bohannon, the company's president, smiled at sewers as he checked their progress.

"My ladies — they’re the heroes in all this," he said Tuesday. "People qualified to do this don't fall off trees."

Through a web of connections that perhaps only the coronavirus could weave, Sentara Healthcare recruited the factory to develop reusable surgical masks said to have antimicrobial properties. The first batch was finished Friday.

Having a stockpile of masks that can be laundered repeatedly could be a lifeline for the Hampton Roads hospitals. Like others facilities across the country, Sentara is implementing new protocols to make its masks, gloves and gowns stretch.

At a news conference Wednesday, Gov. Ralph Northam, who is a pediatric neurologist, explained the problem by the numbers. For each patient, medical staff will use about 240 pieces of protective equipment daily. And with 40 or so Intensive Care Unit patients at each hospital, that comes to about 10,000 items a day, he said.

In most situations, hospitals are using disposable surgical masks, even in triage areas where medical staff are encountering potential coronavirus patients. The paper coverings are designed to protect from splashes, droplets and spit, but unlike the so-called N95 respirator masks, they don't prevent airborne particles of viruses or bacteria.

While respirators are used for high-risk patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, surgical masks have become the standard — and they, too, are hard to replenish.

The reusable mask project started with four cases of bed sheets.

For several years, Sentara has used copper-infused blankets, gowns, towels and washcloths made by Richmond-based Cupron Inc. One of the health system's hospitals participated in a clinical trial to study the products and their potential to ward off serious infections.

The results, published in the American Journal of Infection Control in 2016, showed an 83 percent drop in clostridium difficile, an aggressive bacterial infection, and a 78 percent reduction in staphylococcus aureus, aka MRSA, when compared to a control group.

Cupron, seeing a vast demand for supplies during this crisis, wanted to do something. It planned to donate extra bed linens to Sentara, which then began to look for home sewers — maybe eight or 10 — to turn them into masks.

Word got around to Vicky Gray, a retired Sentara executive, who is a knitter and knows crafty people. She wrote a post on her Thalia Neighbors Facebook page on March 21 seeking volunteers. Plenty of people with skills responded, but it didn't take long before the wife of one of Bohannon's coworkers saw the message and passed it on to him.

Less than 24 hours later, a Sentara employee dropped off 240 bed sheets at his door.

Gray said she wasn't disappointed the project evolved from home-sewing to manufacturing.

"There's lots of people sewing what I would call generally available material, and I knew this was a very special material," Gray said. "As soon as I realized he could do such a large quantity, I realized it was the right thing to do."

The company started with a home sewer's pattern, then adapted the design to be more commercial. The mock-ups survived industrial washing and drying, which gave them a green light to sew full speed ahead.

The first batch of masks was a gift. Bohannon said the turnaround happened so quickly, he didn't even know the cost per unit. But Sentara will compensate LBT and Cupron for supplying some 10,000 more masks. The expansion of the project likely will involve LBT's other plant in El Paso, Texas.

At the Virginia Beach factory, Bohannon, who is 50, limped alongside rows of sewing machine operators. He's in need of a hip replacement, but that will have to wait until non-urgent surgeries are back on schedule.

He admitted it was a rarity to see so many people gathered in one place at a time like this. Because the manufacturer makes products for the Department of Defense, though, it's considered an essential part of the workforce, he said.

"The bad guys are still working right now," Bohannon said, passing stacks of tactical gear for wars overseas.

Later that day, Jason Ellis, general manager of Cupron, dropped off bed linens for 1,000 masks. He could have mailed them from Richmond, but he decided to drive to his new business partner.

"We hadn't met face-to-face," he said, stopping himself mid-sentence. "Well, we hadn't met 10 feet apart before."

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