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People and the Pandemic, Episode 3: Anil Gharmalkar (My Fellow Kansans, Season 3)

 Anil Gharmalkar, a long distance truck driver, came down with COVID-19 in April, and ended up in the ICU. His family struggled with not being able to be with him as he fought for his life from a hospital bed. (Photo by Celia Llopis-Jepsen / Kansas News Service)
Anil Gharmalkar, a long distance truck driver, came down with COVID-19 in April, and ended up in the ICU. His family struggled with not being able to be with him as he fought for his life from a hospital bed. (Photo by Celia Llopis-Jepsen / Kansas News Service)

The term "essential worker" covers a wide range of jobs that proved especially vital when Kansans were hiding out at home from the coronavirus. Anil Gharmalkar, of Oswego, has one of those jobs. He’s a truck driver and traveled across several states with trailer-loads of food so there would be meat on grocery store shelves. It was on the road where COVID-19 caught up with Gharmalkar. He, his wife and his mother spoke with the Kansas News Service about how the virus wears down your body and your mind.


Discover more stories about the health and well-being of Kansans, their communities and civic life from the Kansas News Service by visiting ksnewsservice.org.

Click here to listen to the previous episode in our series: People and the Pandemic, Episode 2: Gabrielle Griffie
Click here to listen to the next episode in our series: People and the Pandemic, Episode 4: Ehlaina Hartman

Subscribe to this season of My Fellow Kansans wherever you get your podcasts.

The Kansas News Service produces essential enterprise reporting, diving deep and connecting the dots in tracking the policies, issues and and events that affect the health of Kansans and their communities. The team is based at KCUR and collaborates with public media stations and other news outlets across Kansas. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org. The Kansas News Service is made possible by a group of funding organizations, led by the Kansas Health Foundation. Other founders include United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, Sunflower Foundation, REACH Healthcare Foundation and the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.