Mar-2021
Hamilton-based Fero International Featured in Toronto Life
Sabrina Fiorellino left her construction company during the pandemic to build modular hospital units so hospitals wouldn’t have to postpone procedures during the pandemic. Here’s how she did it. —As told to Isabel B. Slone
“Pre-pandemic, I was focused on growing my construction company, which I founded with some partners in 2016. But I kept thinking about families who’d had surgeries postponed. Then, during the first lockdown I saw tents being erected to deal with capacity issues. I believed there had to be a better solution. I wanted to create modular hospital rooms that were as close to brick-and-mortar units as possible, and do it in a way that was fast and cheap. I knew shipping containers had been used for many purposes, and I figured it might be possible to convert shipping containers into medical units so hospitals wouldn’t have to cancel surgeries during Covid surges.
By June, I’d founded my new company, Fero International, bringing on two former colleagues from previous businesses as partners. Then I got in touch with Ian McGilvray, a surgical oncologist who I met when my mother was undergoing her transplant, to determine if the idea was viable, and he connected me with Laura Hawryluck, an interventionsit who runs the critical care response team at Toronto Western Hospital. She gave us a crash course on the procedures in a clinical setting, workflow and necessary spatial configurations..”
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