Octavia Spencer donates respiratory monitors to New York and Alabama hospitals after feeling ‘helpless’
Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer has stepped up to do her part in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as the actress has donated breathing monitors to hospitals across the US.
The ‘Self Made’ star donated Miku breathing monitors to Baptist Health as well as the Montefiore Health System locations in Alabama, from where she belongs, and New York, the epicenter of the deadly virus. Spencer took to Instagram as she shared what made her donate the medical equipment.
The 47-year-old also shared a picture of a Miku ventilator and wrote: “I, like many of you, have felt helpless in knowing how to help during this time. Seeing what is happening in the communities that I love, I have teamed up with @Mikucare to donate monitors to nursing and medical facilities in Alabama and New York to provide much-needed relief to nurses as they navigate care for COVID-19 patients.”
Then in the post, the ‘Truth Be Told’ star described the benefits of the monitor as she explained: “Miku’s contactless respiratory monitoring offers the ability to detect nuanced changes in breathing patterns. With the understanding that respiration is one of the earliest indicators of illness, Miku’s breathing monitoring can indicate potential onset before other symptoms present.”
“Miku’s two-way talk and video functionality also provide patients and medical personnel a method to communicate safely and effectively with those who have contracted the highly contagious virus,” she added.
Concluding her post, the Golden Globe Award winner urged people to stay at home during the coronavirus crisis. “Please everyone do your part to stay safe and stay home in order to protect yourself and the ones you love most and I hope we can all find ways - small and large - to give back to our neighbors, family, and those on the frontlines,” Spencer concluded.
After the initial post, ‘The Help’ actress later shared two more posts on her Instagram account. In the first one, through a photograph, she showed hospital staff getting familiar with the equipment. “The hospital staff @montefiorehealthsystem getting familiar with the @mikucare unit. With the help of an iPad per unit (which we also donated), medical staff can monitor respiratory and communicate with 10 patients at a time."
“I wish I could afford to put these in every palliative care convalescent home and hospitals all across the world,” she captioned the post. While her second one included a video, explaining how the respiratory monitor works. “For those interested in understanding how @mikucare monitors work, watch!” Spencer wrote.
This comes a few days after the ‘Hidden Figures’ star shared that she has found her quarantine partner in her celebrity trainer pal Patrick Goudeau. She also shared a jug full of sangria that the two had made for their 'backyard bbq for two".
She captioned the post, “@thepatrickgoudeau and I have turned next week’s meal prep into #sangaria and backyard bbq for two. I’m pretty damned excited. #SangariaSaturday.”
Earlier in March, Spencer talked about her experience while working on Netflix’s ‘Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker'. The actress portrayed the titular role of Madam CJ Walker, America's first female self-made millionaire, in the show. “Madam CJ's story is fascinating, the fact that she actually existed and was able to, at the turn of the century, amass the world that she did," she said.
“She's the first self-made female millionaire of any ethnicity in this country and she didn't have the right to vote and she really didn't have the right to own property, and that says a lot about who she was," she added.