St. Charles North High School sophomore makes face shields for healthcare workers, first responders

ST. CHARLES – As the son of a doctor, St. Charles North High School sophomore Jacob Steimle knows the important of protecting healthcare workers and first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Steimle is making face shields for healthcare workers and first responders using a 3-D printer. The printer makes the plastic frames that keep the face shields in place.

He tested different designs before settling on the one he would use. Steimle started making the face shields earlier this month and took about 30 face shields to Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin, where they were much appreciated.

"They said these [face shields] are really going to help them," Steimle said. "I'm really glad we could do something to help."

His mother, Dr. Cynthia Steimle, is the former chief of surgery at Sherman Hospital. She knows how important the face shields are to healthcare workers and first responders.

'What they do is put a layer of plastic between you and any droplets or any coughing," she said. "If you had a mask and one of these, you'd be very well protected."

Jacob Steimle plans to deliver more face shields to other hospitals in the area, such as Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva. He wants to make as many face shields as he can to meet the demand for them.

Cynthia Steimle said that COVID-19 remains a mysterious disease. She noted that the disease can strike anyone, young and old, and cause serious problems.

"It's not just elderly, frail people who get this and can die," she said. "Even younger, healthy people can."

The COVID-19 coronavirus is deadlier than the seasonal flu and there is currently no vaccine to combat it.

"We think the death rate from it is somewhere around 2 to 3%, which means 97 percent of people get well, but the flu is less than 1%," Cynthia Steimle said. "Plus, we have vaccines against the flu. Generally, you can get a vaccine that will at least help fight the flu. We don't have a vaccine for this because it's a new virus. It's a new kind of virus that we haven't seen before."