A handcrafting showcase for a serious craft

Ruth Ann Floyd and Tina Phelps are true artisans at their craft. For 35 and 11 years respectively, Ruth Ann and Tina have been mastering the art of device manufacturing in Catheters and AAA.

But their work isn’t merely punching sideports in angiogram pigtail catheters or sewing stent grafts. Every day, Ruth Ann, Tina, and the rest of the manufacturing team meticulously handcraft devices that help provide the most quality care for patients.

Tina and Ruth Ann got to see the impact of that work when they were invited to showcase their handcrafting expertise at this year’s VEITHsymposium in New York City, a vascular surgery medical conference and tradeshow.

In the Cook pavilion, a handcrafting station was set up to look like the production area—including a manufacturing desk from Park 48—and cameras were installed above Ruth Ann and Tina’s hands so that VEITH attendees could watch their precise movements on large screens in the pavilion.

During the symposium, Tina demonstrated the skill required to sew each Zenith graft by hand and Ruth Ann showed physicians how catheters are made from start to finish.

Ruth Ann floored physicians with how she can punch sideports in angiogram pigtail catheters at 2mm apart—completely by sight and muscle memory. Physicians would check her work against the measuring block and were amazed at the precision.

“A few of the physicians saw the tea kettle for forming the catheters and asked if I was making tea,” laughed Ruth Ann. “I told them that we use a steam line under the table back at home, but that this was the way Mr. Cook used to do it. Often times, physicians just open catheters without thinking about where they came from. I heard over and over that we need to be very proud of what we do.”

They also heard from many physicians that they had no idea Cook doesn’t just use machines to manufacture our devices.

“Many doctors thought that our production is automated,” said Ruth Ann. “But I told them that how we’re doing it now is how we do it back home in Bloomington, Indiana. When they realize our devices are handcrafted and that we focus on quality above all else, they have a whole new respect for what we do.”

“And they realize it’s not as easy as they thought,” Tina added. “They don’t think about how much attention to detail goes into devices until they see it and try it for themselves. I really enjoyed interacting with doctors and reps and seeing their reaction as they tried to sew the grafts. One physician joked that he would love to have me do sutures in his operating room.”

Overall, Ruth Ann and Tina said they felt like the handcrafting station was a huge success that gave many physicians a whole new appreciation for the effort that Cook puts into manufacturing quality products.

“I heard one doctor telling another, ‘You have to go to the Cook booth. They have real people making devices in there!’ That was really neat to hear,” said Tina.

Tina and Ruth Ann both expressed how honored they felt by being able to represent their teams at VEITH, and how grateful they were for the support they received back home.

“I didn’t just go to represent Cook,” said Ruth Ann. “I was representing Catheters as well. Physicians don’t realize we are real people and we come in here every day to do this.”

“The people in our room are like one big happy family,” added Tina.

“It was amazing to hear from doctors, ‘Do you know how many lives you’ve saved?'” said Tina. “You come to work every day and are working on products, but you don’t think about what an impact you make.”

Blog post author Jessica Albright has a special appreciation for the handcrafting process. She started her career at Cook sewing AAA stent grafts 15 years ago. Later she served as product manager for Zenith stent grafts. Currently, Jessica is global marketing manager for the Aortic Intervention SBU.