Mindy Torres has dedicated three years to working at Children’s Minnesota in several lab roles at both the Minneapolis and St. Paul locations. When she and her husband got pregnant with their second child, she knew she could trust Children’s Minnesota to deliver her baby safely.
When Mindy was 22 weeks pregnant, her water broke due to a complication. Her baby, Javier, was then born at just 24 weeks, which meant he was nearly four months premature. He was immediately brought to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Minnesota. That’s when the family learned Javier would need an oxygen tube placed and that he would have an extended stay at the NICU until he could regulate his breathing without oxygen.
“The people at Children’s Minnesota not only took care of my son but also took care of me,” Mindy remembers. “Things got rough sometimes, but they all listened to my concerns with empathy and understanding.”
Photography provided by Children’s Minnesota
Javier spent more than four months in the NICU, slowly getting stronger and stronger every day. Then his care team told his parents he could go home; however, he would still need to be on oxygen.
“When I was first told Javier would need to be on oxygen at home, I felt super overwhelmed and very scared,” Mindy recalls. “I thought, How am I going to do this? I have another kid at home.”
Before they went home with Javier, Mindy and her husband were trained and prepared to help Javier with his oxygen at home, from changing his tubes to watching his levels to ensure there was always oxygen in the tank. Javier slowly started to rely less and less on oxygen. He went from needing an oxygen tube to a daily nebulizer, and now he uses an inhaler only as needed or if he’s sick.
“Javier is doing great,” explains Mindy. “He’s very much my troublemaker. He’s feisty and real sassy. We feel like these are very much the same qualities he had during his NICU stay.”
Javier recently celebrated his first birthday, all without the help of oxygen. Mindy knew she could trust her fellow colleagues and Kid Experts at Children’s Minnesota to care for her new baby.
“They took care of my baby, but they were also literally holding my hand,” Mindy praises. “That’s something I could never repay them for. They were advocates not only for Javier but for me.”
Neonatology is the focus of this year’s Children’s Minnesota Star Gala. For nearly 30 years, the Twin Cities philanthropic community has come together to raise millions of dollars for the nonprofit, which relies on generous donors to make possible the life-changing programs at Children’s Minnesota.
