Vyaire Medical employees have been doing whatever they can to meet the unprecedented demand for respiratory equipment for treating COVID-19 patients, not only expanding efforts in their normal roles, but also pitching in to help other departments. They’re also there to help one another.

Samantha Mannis, a field service technician based in Iowa, has been spending more time in her car these past couple months than probably anywhere else. At one point, Mannis, who joined Vyaire Medical in November 2019, was covering a 10-state region and on the road four or five days a week, often driving as much as 10 hours one way to help a customer.

“I’m home on the weekends, but that’s about it,” she said, adding she knew travel was part of the job, even if it’s currently a bit more than she originally anticipated. “Whether I’m going to Chicago or Wisconsin or Minnesota, it’s all about getting customers up and running with their ventilators.”

Even with her upbeat attitude, Mannis says the workload can take its toll. “It can seem very isolating because you’re away from your family and sitting around in hotels.”

Mannis said one thing that has helped has been the response from customers — whether it’s setting up special work areas that are isolated from patients or a willingness to reschedule an appointment so she can help another customer with a more urgent need. Customers “are making a lot of efforts to make sure everyone is safe and everyone is taken care of,” she said.

She’s also getting a lot of support from her Vyaire Medical colleagues. “It definitely feels like Vyaire has a really great community of people looking out for you. It’s been amazing.”

Her fellow service technicians have been particularly helpful. They’ve offered to send her spare parts that she’s needed and one, when she told him it was hard to find time to shop, even offered to send her toilet paper.

“If you need something, or even if you just need to talk, whatever it is, it’s nice to have that kind of support,” Mannis said. “You can’t put a price on it.”

For more information about Vyaire’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, visit the company’s COVID-19 Response Center at https://www.vyaire.com/Covid-19.