Background
When Nita Gupta, MD, was nine years old, she experienced a moment that would shape the course of her life. Returning home from India with her parents and sisters, Nita was walking down the aisle of the plane when her father collapsed. The flight attendants moved him to the front of the plane for medical assessment and gently urged the girls to take their seats. Confused and scared, they received little information about what was happening.
The plane took off as expected but as Nita watched the monitor, she saw the aircraft turn around. At the terminal, the crew deboarded her family, and Nita glimpsed her father lying on the floor. Flight attendants took the girls to a room where they felt isolated, unsure, and terrified. For Nita, this moment – defined by uncertainty, fear, and separation – left a lasting imprint.
Today, Nita works at Children’s Minnesota health system as a pediatric emergency medicine physician with a deep commitment to supporting kids during crises. She is particularly passionate about the often-overlooked topic of family reunification in disaster and emergency preparedness.
Broader Challenge
During emergencies, family reunification can be chaotic and emotionally fraught for children. The absence of clear protocols and communication can heighten trauma, delay care, and prevent families from connecting.
In 2005, more than 5,000 children were separated from their families during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. At the time, most agencies did not have family reunification plans and reuniting the children took months.1 This highlights the critical need for streamlined, child-focused reunification strategies – something Nita is committed to addressing.
Action
Nita transformed her traumatic childhood experience into a professional mission. Now, she emphasizes trauma-informed care and advocates improving reunification protocols. In addition to her work at the Children’s Minnesota emergency department (ED), Nita is Minnesota’s principal investigator for Region V for Kids, a consortium of organizations dedicated to improving preparedness and one of several Pediatric Disaster Centers of Excellence. Nita developed and hosted the Region V for Kids’ WI/MN Cross-Border Family Reunification Tabletop Exercise, one of the first to promote interstate reunification collaboration. She also helped create a Reunification Educational Series that guides hospitals to build an effective reunification plan.
Nita’s passion extends to her work as a subject matter expert with PPN’s Disaster Response Collaborative (DRC). As a member of the Reunification Focus Area Oversight Group, she helps other hospitals integrate child-sensitive reunification strategies into emergency response systems.
Impact
In 2025, Nita and her team at Children’s Minnesota built a new reunification plan and conducted a full-scale training exercise. In contrast to Nita’s childhood experience, the plan supports families during medical or disaster-related emergencies using clear communication tools and designated staff who handle reunification compassionately.
A few months after the exercise, the team had to activate the plan quickly when notified about a mass casualty incident (MCI) at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Amid tragedy, the team’s planning and hard work helped them to identify and reunite every child who came to their hospital within hours.
As an advocate, Nita has increased awareness of how family separation impacts children psychologically. She has worked with interdisciplinary teams on reunification protocols that are emotionally supportive and helped shift the culture to prioritize reunification as a core component of trauma-informed care.
Next Steps
Although the hospital’s reunification plan worked well, the team is updating it to include additional ways to identify children. “The MCI taught us many things,” Nita states. “One is that reunification plans typically focus on identifying children by clothing. Since this incident happened at a Catholic school, the children were all wearing the same uniform. Thankfully, the team found other solutions like using the children’s fingernail polish. So, our recommendation is that plans should include other ways to identify children besides clothing, belongings, tattoos, or jewelry because these may not be available in every situation.”
The team is also updating their plan for the possibility a shooter is brought to the same hospital as the victims. Although this situation did not happen during the MCI, the team would like to plan for the best way to handle that scenario for staff and families.
Nita will share more information from the team’s experience by moderating a DRC Reunification Focus Area Session panel called “Family Reunification During Annunciation School Shooting: Lessons from a Real-Life Event.” As a PPN pediatric disaster research scholar, she is also working on a systematic review on family reunification which, when completed, will be the first of its kind.
Key Takeaways
Nita’s personal experience fuels her dedication to remain a steady, compassionate presence for children during their most frightening and vulnerable moments. She has firsthand knowledge of the emotional toll that disconnection can have, and she works to ensure that no child feels lost, alone, or forgotten in the chaos of an emergency. For Nita, pediatric emergency care is not just about medicine, and reunification is not just about reunion. When children are experiencing heartbreak and everything is uncertain, Nita knows the mission is also about making sure they feel seen, safe, and fully supported.