Doctors of Indian descent try to help loved ones caught in COVID crisis far away

Many American doctors of Indian descent are to help family and friends by managing care and shipping supplies from thousands of miles away.

As COVID-19 began its deadly surge in India last week, Dr. Vincent Rajkumar, a physician in Rochester, Minnesota, tweeted about how he and other doctors of Indian descent felt "both hopeless [and] determined" to help their families and close friends on the other side of the world. Other American doctors like him responded to his tweet, saying they felt the same way about trying to manage care and shipping supplies from thousands of miles away. Rajkumar and his wife, who both work at the Mayo Clinic, are doing everything they can. "We have been inundated with phone calls for help in terms of ... securing hospital beds for people or getting oxygen for people or basically providing counseling and care for people who are ill," Rajkumar told ABC News. "This has been going on non-stop for the whole of last week."