A Medevac Maverick's Personal Ukraine Mission to Save Lives

Abstract

In late March of 2022, a mate of Caleb Carr's reached out to him about the Vita Rescue System (VRS; Vita Inclinata, Broomfield, CA). He e-mailed the following: "I was scrolling LinkedIn, and I saw the VRS right next to a bombing of Kyiv. Can you help?" Carr found out later that the head of Ukraine's emergency service was right next to his friend when he realized the impact that the VRS could have on the country's fight. There wasn't a question in Carr's mind about what he should do once he spoke with the Ukrainian military directly. First, he had to use a hot spot on Google Hangouts (Google, Mountain View, CA) because they had lost all connectivity via normal means. Then, through the spotty connection with them in a bomb shelter, the Ukrainian ministry explained the importance of the system and the impact it could have. It was all he could do not to be distracted by their bravery and the unmistakable face of exhaustion on all of their faces. Within 10 minutes, Vita cofounder Derek Sikora and Carr decided to divert all of the company's resources to ensure that they could deliver the VRS to Ukraine as fast as possible. Within 3 weeks, they were successful.