Palm Beach Area Hospitals
Florida
All it takes is one person (or in this case two middle schoolers) to make a meaningful difference. In Palm Beach, Florida, brother and sister Micah and Molly Kapp recently launched the “PB PAPR Project,” a non-profit that was founded by the Kapps to protect frontline healthcare workers during COVID-19.
Micah and Molly are the children of Dr. Daniel Kapp, a plastic surgeon who practices at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical Center. They know firsthand how important it is for clinicians and other hospital staff to have the appropriate protective gear to treat patients during the pandemic.
Fox 29 in Palm Beach recently covered the family and their work on this project. As noted in the story, that includes launching a GoFundMe campaign, raising more than $25,000 and working with Ford, which manufactures the powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR), to secure additional PAPRs for hospital workers. These PAPRs have since been distributed to three of our hospitals in the community – Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical Center – as well as to other local hospitals.
As Molly said to Fox, “[Caregivers] need to feel safe so they can come home to their families and we don’t want them to spread the virus to their family. We want them to stay safe and healthy.”
Maggie Gill, CEO of Tenet’s Palm Beach Health Network, said, “We thank the Kapp family for supporting our caregivers and starting this incredible initiative! Our staff is appreciative of the PAPR masks donation. We will use these masks along with other PPE, to help ensure our staff continue to stay safe.”