Having even one family member infected with COVID-19 is a daunting prospect. For the Gupta family, it was not one, but six of them fighting the disease. Their worries compounded when five-year-old Abhijeet was diagnosed with a rare condition, Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), that affected his mobility.

It started when COVID-positive Shani Shriniwas Gupta, 34, was admitted to Nair hospital on June 1, 2020. Shani’s distressed wife Uma, 30, called her brother Omkar, 28, to help. Omkar, who works in the pharma field, lives with his family in Malad’s Kurar village. Without a second thought, Omkar went to help his sister in Worli but little did he know that it would set off a chain of infections.