After losing her grandmother to coronavirus, UMass Medical School student Emily Chin has found meaning in 3D – MassLive.com

The buzz of a 3D printer is near-constant as it sits on Emily Chins desk in Worcester, creating a headpiece for a face shield one after another.

Chin, a rising second-year medical student at UMass Medical School, has been making and donating hundreds of face shields to hospitals and nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic. The effort is more than just a way to give back to health care workers during a time of global crisis, which has left medical students without clinical duties in hospitals. Its also a way for Chin to honor the memory of her grandmother, Yuk Yip Wu, who lost her life to the virus in April.

It helps channel the grief and something thats incredibly sad into something thats more meaningful, Chin said. Thats kind of been my way of processing grief and death in my family.

Chins grandmother, who she called Popo or granny, had started complaining of symptoms like muscle aches, but not shortness of breath, cough or a fever, some of the common signs of coronavirus. Her grandmother lived at home and didnt go out much, so the possibility that her grandmother could have coronavirus wasnt on Chins mind.

But, with the virus spreading across Massachusetts from March into April, Chin was nervous to take her grandmother to the hospital, fearing she might contract the disease. Eventually, they went to Brigham and Womens Hospital, where Chin, a certified medical interpreter, got special permission to stay at the hospital and help her grandmother, who was hard of hearing and primarily spoke Cantonese.

At the hospital, they found out Chins grandmother did have coronavirus.

I was shocked, Chin, 25, recalled in a phone interview on Thursday. I was worried for the first time that my grandma would not be able to leave the hospital.

Though many efforts were made to try and help Chins grandmother recover, she never was able to leave the hospital. Yuk Yip Wu died on April 10. She was 95 years young, as Chin put it.

About a week later, Chin and her partner, Alex, were getting started making the face shields. Alex is an architect with RODE Architects in Boston and his firm has provided the 3D printer and materials for the couple to create the face shields from home.

Chin said she dove into research, trying to figure out the best way to design and make the shields. She and her partner used a design file shared online by Cornell University to figure out how to 3D print the shields. Chin poured through one Google search after another and read reviews on Amazon, trying to understand what makes the shields most effective for health care workers so she could make them just right.

It takes 1 hour and 7 minutes to print the headpiece, Chin said, which she then polishes down with scissors. After that, she spends several minutes punching holes in plastic sheets to attach the shield part to the headpiece. The entire process takes about an hour and a half for one face shield, Chin said.

The 3D printer runs from about the time she wakes up until she goes to bed for the evening.

As of Thursday, Chin said shes created about 350 face shields. Shes donated them to the UMass Memorial distribution center, which spreads supplies out to the hospitals and, when it was open, the field hospital at the DCU Center. Other donations have gone to the Saint Francis Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Worcester, the Worcester Rehabilitation & Health Care Center, and to CareOne in Brookline, where Chins grandmother had been a patient before.

Chin, who wants to become an OBGYN physician and wants to reduce maternal mortality disparities, said she plans to keep making the face shields as long as possible.

Growing up, Chin said her grandmother helped raise her while her parents were busy running several businesses in Bostons Chinatown. Chin went to Chinese school on the weekends, she said, and every Sunday her grandmother would come in from Mission Hill to walk her to school and pick her up after. They would always go to lunch and tried a new place each week, she remembered.

Those were just some of the most fond memories, Chin said. I just remember being at the school, standing there waiting for her and seeing my grandmas full head of white hair just eagerly waiting for me and asking me where I wanted to go for lunch.

All her memories with her grandma are centered around food, Chin said, especially her grandmothers delicious ginger scallion garlic shrimp.

"She was just an incredible chef and has inspired me to cook with my heart and soul, said Chin, who opened the Double Chin restaurant in Chinatown with her sister, Gloria, in 2015.

Chin was especially close with her grandmother after suffering the devastating loss of both her parents. When Chin was in high school, her father died from esophageal cancer. Within a month of his death, her mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer as a non-smoker.

In April, when Chin was at the hospital with her grandmother, she was able to obtain a face shield from a co-worker of her partners and her uncle found a N95 mask for her.

I ended up getting fully geared and I had felt so much safer walking into the room and knowing that I wouldnt put ask much risk to my partner, who I live with," Chin said. It was a very comforting feeling that Im sure health care workers appreciate when they feel fully prepared to go into patient rooms to provide the care they need.

It gave Chin an even deeper understanding of the importance of personal protective equipment.

I wasnt worried about getting COVID. I was more worried about getting the people around me sick and so It felt nice to know that I was being protected," she said.

And the gear worked. When Chin got tested for coronavirus herself after her time in the hospital, the result was negative.