A South Florida-based entrepreneur brought $1 million worth of COVID test kits to Ukraine. NBC 6’s Ari Odzer reports
Feeling moved by the fight against the Russian invasion, Ron Gutman went to Ukraine on a mission to help.
He had heard the country was extremely concerned about a major COVID surge as millions of refugees from the eastern part of the nation have fled west, away from the fighting. The tide of humanity has overcrowded western cities, such as Lviv, and overwhelmed hospitals there.
“These people are on the front line of protecting freedom and I think they’re doing it for all of us, and we’re seeing what’s happening there, it’s not right, it shouldn’t happen,” said Gutman, who came back from Ukraine Tuesday night. “It’s amazing to see these things on the ground but I went there exactly to understand the extent of the need.”
Gutman figured he had a useful prescription. His Miami-based company, Intrivo, makes COVID test kits and computer platforms that enable hospitals, for example, to discover a COVID cluster and isolate those employees.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
“The key basically is to make sure that when we catch those things we nip the whole surge in the bud,” Gutman said.
The co-founder of the company, Gutman, brought $1 million worth of COVID testing kits, software, and hardware with him and donated it to several hospitals. As he explains, the hospitals in and around Lviv are bursting at the seams with patients. If one doctor goes down for ten days with COVID, it has a damaging ripple effect. Gutman learned this and much more, first-hand.
“That they have multiple needs for healthcare-related products, services, devices that they’re in shortage of,” Gutman said.
Local
For example, he says there’s been a surge of stress-induced premature baby deliveries, so neonatology equipment is desperately needed.
“Another hospital actually needed equipment, actually just IT equipment to manage the flow of patients coming in,” Gutman explained.
Back in his home office in Miami, Gutman is recruiting other healthcare companies to join him on his next trip to Ukraine, to deliver more free goods and services to those struggling hospitals. Gutman says he’s just getting started.
