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If you haven’t heard of Joan Sullivan Garrett or MedAire, you are in for a ride! As a flight nurse, all Joan ever wanted to do is save lives. In 1984, the loss of a young patient in the mountains of Arizona compelled her to pioneer global telemedicine - quite a feat in those days. Her book is dedicated to this little boy, Ralphie, whose passing sparked a revolution in remote travel medicine.
As an unlikely CEO, Joan found a way to connect ground-based emergency physicians to flight crews from anywhere in the world in real time, whether 36,000 feet in the air or in the middle of an ocean. This became safety net for you, the traveler, during medical emergencies. Thousands of lives have been saved and millions are safer on air, land and sea because Joan made the jump into the unknown and built a company from the ground up - a rare startup for a female in the male-dominated industries of the 1980s.
Joan lived quite a story before becoming an entrepreneur. She is proud to be third-generation Irish and a third-generation nurse. She survived a challenging childhood to become a veteran of critical care aboard helicopters and fixed-wing planes, and once implanted a pacemaker during an emergency. These adrenaline moments are documented in detail, as well as some of the lighter moments as Joan and her team traveled internationally to supply medical kits, training, and ultimately, MedLink services to commercial airlines, private jet and yacht owners, and commercial vessels on nearly every continent.
As a then-single mother, she segued her practical knowledge into the corporate world, testified before Congress in a critical push for defibrillators, made history in the annals of flight and maritime medicine, and today serves as MedAire’s chairman and an industry consultant.
Joan’s entrepreneurial story shares the passion and sacrifice required to build a legacy, which continues today through the international company she created from scratch and her numerous industry awards and honors. None of it would have been possible without the support of her two sons and her husband of thirty-five years - and a belief in the power of the word yes.
