Georgia student, son of 2 first responders, creates lifesaving COVID-19 equipment

“I saw nothing better I could do to give back to people like my mom, my dad," Kentez Craig said.

When Kentez Craig was a teenager, he was riding in the car with his father one day when they came upon a vehicle on fire along the side of the road. Craig’s dad, a paramedic, pulled the car to a stop and rushed out to help.

It was the kind of act that didn’t surprise Craig. He grew up listening to his parents, both paramedics, tell stories of responding to burning buildings and crushed cars. They instilled in him the importance of serving one’s community and never panicking in a crisis.

Seven years later, Craig’s dad, Kenneth, is working as an emergency room paramedic, now on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis in Georgia. Craig is a graduate student at Georgia Tech’s school of mechanical engineering.

Watching the pandemic ravage Atlanta, Craig said his parents’ devotion to public service inspired him to take action. Together with a small team of Georgia Tech faculty and students, he has spent the past two months working to design and build critical protective gear and medical equipment to help first responders battle COVID-19.

“I saw nothing better I could do to give back to people like my mom, my dad — who have been working in emergency services — and first responders on the real front lines of this,” Craig told NBC News.

Read the complete article at nbcnews.com