Children’s Minnesota Stories

In celebration of National Speech-Language-Hearing Month, we sat down with Jesi Novak, Au.D., CCC-A, PASC, lead audiologist, to learn more about her role at Children’s Minnesota.

As kid experts at Children's Minnesota, our care can have a lasting impact on patients and families. Routine clinic visits build long-term relationships that evolve as kids grow into young adults. And, hospital stays can be formative experiences in our young patients’ lives.

The Kid Experts at Children’s Minnesota discovered Kellen had a rare spinal cord condition called acute flaccid myelitis. Through Kellen's hard work, he's on the road to recovery.

As a baby, Vincent required life support to survive using a special machine called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Baby Santiago’s delicate in-utero spina bifida repair procedure was the 100th performed at the Midwest Fetal Care Center, a collaboration between Allina Health and Children’s Minnesota.

Sports and physical activity help children and teens build strength, learn new skills and learn about the value of teamwork. However, even with all the precautions coaches and parents take, more than 3.5 million kids are injured each year playing sports.

Meet Dario Chavez. Shortly after graduating high school, Dario found out he had a grapefruit-sized tumor in his abdomen. Tests revealed the 19-year-old had rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer. Children's Minnesota became his home away from home during his treatment. Because of the chemotherapy and treatment to cure his cancer, it was expected that Dario would not be able to have kids in the future. But today, Dario is not only married to his high school sweetheart, but the proud father of two boys.  Learn more about his story and watch as Dario reunites with his physician, Dr. Susan Sencer, vice president and chief of specialty pediatric, nearly 20 years after his diagnosis. 

Watching your child go into surgery can stir up many emotions. Candi knows those feelings. She watched her daughter, Natasha, get wheeled into heart surgery when she was only 4 months old. However, the experience was made a little easier by the compassionate care provided at Children’s Minnesota.

To celebrate National Interpreter Appreciation Day, Mary Barrera Cobos, a Spanish interpreter at Children’s Minnesota, shares her journey and what it means to be a medical interpreter.

Oct. 14 holds a special place in the hearts of Marcy Anderson and her daughter Ashley. It’s a reminder of their resilience through uncertain times as it was on that date in 1986, that Ashley had her final chemotherapy treatment at Children’s Minnesota in St. Paul.