They wouldn't have survived, Rani says, without help from the nine doctors in their family.
“This is a war,” Rani said. “Nothing less than a war."
That's why Indian American doctors like her can provide a lifeline, she says, as hospitals and health care workers struggle to keep up with the barrage of new cases.
“It’s a very, very concerted effort that's going on from our medical faculty here,” said Dr. Anita Gupta, who does research at the IU School of Medicine and serves as communications chair at the Hindu Temple of Central Indiana. She too has been helping guide sick family members back home in a “collective effort,” alongside her husband, who's a doctor, and her sister in Chicago, who's a pharmacist.