INDIANAPOLIS Cara Hopkins is preparing a patient for a breathing treatment.

Okay, hun, Im going to listen to your breath sounds real quick, okay? she said.

Hopkins is a respiratory therapy assistant at IU Health University Hospital, a role she went back to school for 15 months ago.

It was scary at first. I had to relearn how to study, how to do school. We have two kids, she said.

Her inspiration came after her husband underwent a double-lung transplant in 2023.

About a week after his transplant, he ended up in rejection. He spent a very long time on ECMO, he had a trach, he was on the ventilator, he ended up having to do feeding tubes, all of the things, she said.

The care he received from his respiratory therapists sparked something in her.

I like to see what everything is about, s

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