Doctor's Day 2020

Dr. Rubenthaler Twins When Dr. Kali Rubenthaler, family medicine physician at Great Plains Family Medicine, found out she was expecting twins seven years ago, she said, “I was shocked.” Dr. Rubenthaler and her husband, Austin Brunkhardt, already had a nine-month-old daughter. “My husband is an absolute saint. We had three kids in 18 months,” she said. “I was in the middle of my residency.” Austin set aside his business to take care of the children while Dr. Rubenthaler finished residency. After the birth of their twin sons, there was another bump in the road. One of the twins was born with a heart defect, and at just eight months old had open heart surgery. “That was the only day the boys have ever spent apart,” said Dr. Rubenthaler.

Dr. Pasam Twins

Dr. Avinash Pasam, oncologist at the Callahan Cancer Center, is the father of 23-month-old twin girls. When Dr. Pasam and his wife, Indu, found out they were expecting twins, they were shocked. “Twins do not run in my family,” said Dr. Pasam. One of the greatest challenges was getting the babies to sleep through the night. “We put them together, that didn’t work. So then we separated them, and that didn’t work so well, either,” laughed Dr. Pasam. “When they were old enough to speak, they would call out for one another, so we put them back together.”

Although the boys fight at times, as siblings do, they are very good friends. “We put them in the same class at school,” said Dr. Rubenthaler. “That doesn’t mean that they don’t have their own friends or don’t do things independently, they just like to see that their brother is nearby.” Since the boys don’t look alike, many people initially don’t realize they are twins. “It’s kind of nice, since there is a size difference between the two boys, we can pass hand-me-downs from one to the other,” laughs Dr. Rubenthaler.

The Pasams received help caring for the girls when they were young from both Dr. Pasam’s family and Indu’s family. According to Dr. Pasam, the girls are either great friends or fighting with each other. “They are just normal kids; when one takes a toy the other one wants, they fight over it. But they also love to play together.” Dr. Pasam moved to North Platte to join the oncology practice and enjoys raising his children in this community. “We are able to spend time together as a family, and that means a lot to me.”

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