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What His Family Taught Him About Saving Lives | JJ the RT · Voices of Vital Care

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: That is something that that I carry still today is letting them know that there's somebody that is alongside them that will listen, that will grab a tissue, that will, you know, clean the patient's eyes when they can't do it themselves.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, those are different things that in sometimes you think, why is a respiratory therapist doing that?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm a human taking care of a human.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Voices of Vital Care.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about a career in healthcare, we often start with school, training, the job itself.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: But our stories start long before any of that with the people who raised us and the things that we learned at home.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: JJ Valdez, who you may know is JJ the RT, is back with us on Voices of Vital Care.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Last time we explored his work in respiratory therapy.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Today, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we're getting to know another part of JJ's story.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Growing up in a Hispanic household, finding his own path, and how those experiences shape the way that he cares for others.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: JJ, welcome back.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So glad to see you again, my friend.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, this is so much fun.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so thankful again to be on this show with you guys.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: I had a blast last time, looking forward to it this time.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's get into it and take me back.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do a throwback here.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Bring me inside your house growing up.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Who were the people that were there?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: What were those everyday moments?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: What were the unique things that made it home for you?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I I um grew up and my parents split whenever I was in kindergarten.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so it was weekends with mom, rest of the week with dad.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: It was a crazy situation where I actually got to make that decision where I wanted to be with my dad.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: And my sister stayed with our mom.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: And um several years later, when I was in middle school, my dad got remarried to my stepmom.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: And her family, uh, her parents immigrated from Mexico, and they were Spanish speaking only.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: So growing up in an English-speaking house, now going into my Huelita and Huelitos house, where we are now speaking Spanish, and I had only taken junior high Spanish at the time.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew Banano, and I say it a whole lot better, right?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: But we would play lotería, we would, we would play games, and it was just such a different atmosphere when my stepmom's family came into the picture because uh Christmases were a little bit different too.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I remember like they grew up, like her parents grew up, and they lived in a home that had dirt floors.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like it didn't have, you know, central plumbing, central AC and heat.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so what they could give all of the grandchildren were, and we're coming into the holiday season, so this kind of fits right now, but they would give uh like paper sacks, and there would be an orange and an apple and a candy cane, some pecans, uh, and maybe uh maybe a little a book or something that they could get, but that's what they could do for all of the grandchildren that they had.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: And that's something that just always stuck with me.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: And what's really neat is now I started to do that with my wife and her family.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: And so I started that tradition is we would bring an orange and apple, the pecans, the candy, and all of that for all of our family on that side now, too.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So those formative years really helped give you a whole new life path, it sounds like, and really put you in touch with your roots, maybe deeper than you otherwise would have.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was it was very different because I I don't remember my dad speaking Spanish before my stepmom, before my grandparents, right?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: I knew he was Mexican and all, you know, all like full Mexican.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I just never heard Matías and Matíos speaking Spanish.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: But then whenever my grandparents came around, my Welitos came around, then it was Spanish speaking only.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, you do that?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm in school for this, and you do this just off of the off of the draw, and and it was it was really neat.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so even now, whenever I get to work with folks from Spain or from Mexico, and and they have the like traditional Spanish, like we have Tex Mex, right?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but the traditional Spanish, it's so beautiful, and I love it.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: I just like I soak it up every time I can get around the people that do that.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, now you have an ear for it so you can differentiate, which is really cool.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, tell me something about your family then at this point and coming along that like looking back now, if you said it, they'd be like, Oh yeah, that's our family.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's us.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's something distinctive about them?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: So it's it's really funny because having having those deep Mexican roots, um, my stepmom's dad, he wanted one physician.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: He didn't want a cardiologist, he didn't want a neurologist, he didn't want a pulmonologist, he didn't want all of these different specialties, he wanted one doctor that could take care of it all, which is kind of more of a traditional, I guess, what in the sense of Mexico, you're gonna have one one guy kind of taking in care of it all.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what he wanted.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's just really funny because he would get a little cranky that he would have to go to a different specialist uh uh when he was going to these doctor's appointments.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: So that that is something that sticks out.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about what we take from family and move forward.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something that you learned about that they talked about within your family that you learned by watching them that you've then carried into your life and your career?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's so there's a couple of things that kind of stick out.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, 9-11 is uh a day that stands out in history, right?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: But I remember that not only that tragic day, but I remember that my stepmom's family from Mexico was in town that week.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_03: And they were terrified.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: They were terrified.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was using the Spanish that I had to try to calm my family.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm in middle school at that time.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: So just remembering that that that week was Spanish speaking only in our house.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I also remember that like I grew up and I would take care of like I would iron my own clothes.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: I would, you know, make my own breakfast in the morning.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it was cereal, so it wasn't like I'm making a whole bunch, a big spread.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but that's very different than the traditional household in Mexico.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: The women are up early, they're making the breakfast, the hot breakfast, they're ironing the clothes, making sure that everything's well and taken care of for the kids and the husband and the men in the house before they go to work or before they go to school.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so I had it in my mind that I needed to continue to do these things, or else I would be in trouble.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: And they were just like just the opposite with the tradition, and they were trying to take care of me.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: And that is such a that was kind of a not a friction point, but that was just a a point where two like cultures and two traditions were coming to a head in one house.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: And it was it was uh fun to kind of navigate that conversation, one, because I was struggling with my Spanish, but two, um, just to understand where they're coming from and also them to understand where I'm coming from.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: So that was that was something that really stood out.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how did your understanding at that time where it seemed like this back and forth?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: How is that change now and looking back on it with perspective in adulthood and you know, applying it to maybe patients even that you've encountered and knowing how that, you know, cultural family dynamic works?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_03: I I think that is something that's unique in in healthcare.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: And it's something that we we touch on in school, but we don't spend a whole lot of time on it, is the cultural differences.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: And even whenever we would go in through orientation, as a traveling respiratory therapist, I went through several orientations and we would touch on it, and it was more of a conversation of respecting people for the culture and the traditions that they have.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: And and that's about as far as I really dove into it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I do, I do think that seeing those things in my you know, formative years helps me understand and helps me relate to people as they're going through maybe even grief.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's different ways that people grief with different cultures.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: There's there's ways that people understand how the healthcare system works.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, somebody that English is their second language uh may have more of a challenge understanding the healthcare system.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: Already in healthcare or us as a nation, we only understand healthcare to about a fifth or sixth or seventh grade reading level.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: Now imagine if English is your second language.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: So now you have even maybe even a lowered uh level of understanding of the entire system.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: So then we have to break things down maybe in a different way, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so um there's there's lots of different things that are that are there that are associated with it.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I do not tell my patients that I fully understand what they're saying, um, which may be a good thing, maybe a bad thing.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I I usually come in with my English, and then whenever they start talking amongst themselves, and I say, Well, I understand what you're trying to say, right?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I will speak in Spanish, uh, I'll I understand what you're trying to do.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: This is what we're trying to get out of our out of out of the patient, out of your loved one.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: And they are always taken aback whenever they see me working with my Spanish.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's not, it's not the technical, it's not the the classic, beautiful Spanish that I love.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's more of the text mech, text mechs.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I'm working on it though.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_03: I am working on it.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: There's a medical Spanish that is going to come out at some point, and I'm going to be all over it.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but those are those are different things with understanding those cultures, how uh things can shift.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think is there a reason that you hold back in the beginning that you don't let them know right off the bat of you know, I speak your language?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know what you're saying.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: I think people are stunned.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: They're they're they're stunned.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: So many, and in I I've encountered several people whose parents, you know, immigrated from Mexico, and their kids were bullied because they didn't speak English very well.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then that was something that they didn't want to go down the line, they didn't want that same experience.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: So so many people have pulled back on teaching their native tongue, their native language in Spanish.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so I don't over want to disrespect somebody by speaking their language, right?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe not as well, or even kind of fall into the same trap to where I could be bullied.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think it's from that, but I do think that there is like a hesitation there.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then whenever I do speak Spanish, most of the time they're pleasantly surprised.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Once you realize that you can use it as a tool for better, closer connection and improvement of care.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and two, there's a lot of times that I can get maybe not the exact words that we need, but we can get close enough to the understanding between each other.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk a little bit about your career and and carrying what you've learned from your family into the job.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: When you first entered healthcare training or you started working, when would you say you first felt like you belonged?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like were there any moments that you questioned it at first?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: I think in school, very early when we started going to the hospital, one of my first experiences um is uh there was a patient that was frequently uh at the hospital.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: He would take the bus and uh he would take the bus and barely make it into the emergency department to get the treatment that he needed.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the days that I was there at the hospital for clinical rotation, he collapsed in the atrium.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: He he and the team responded and they did CPR, they worked in an area outside of their normal space, in in a room, in a trauma room, in an IC room.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: They were working in the atrium.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I just saw the team come together and really work together as a unit, and that is when I knew I made the right decision to get into healthcare and to go into this field that that I'm in now as a respiratory therapist, um, to see the team working like that.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: I knew I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: And that was what kind of really propelled me to continue just pursuing it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Is there, you know, oftentimes in Hispanic cultures and families in particular, um, talking about going into a career in healthcare, and if you're not saying you're going to be a doctor, is kind of like, well, what are you doing?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And is that a real job?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Did you face any of that with your family and and how did you get through that?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: I I don't know that it was really from my family.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's more from the outside perspective.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, nobody really knows what a respiratory therapy respiratory therapist is still.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: And we had a pandemic less than a decade ago, a respiratory pandemic.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, six years ago, five years ago, we were bedside heroes.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: And now people still are like, well, what's a respiratory therapist?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's that's we're the best kept secret, is what we are.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I think my family were just kind of they were proud that they had somebody going into the medical field.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know that anybody before me was in the medical field.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I know that there was uh I have a cousin who's a radiology tech, I have a cousin who's uh uh paramedic, an an LVN that's going to get her RN now.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't know that I'm saying that I started a trend, but in our family we didn't have a whole lot of people in medicine, and now we've got at least a handful uh and more that are looking to get into it.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: So what was it then from your dad, from your abuela, you know, that gave you that confidence then to be the first to go and walk a path that maybe was not so familiar?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I don't know that there was a particular moment.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: I just think that everybody was supportive.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: I think everybody was supportive, and I think that's the collective of the the family unit unit that you get so often in Hispanic culture is you get a village that is taking care of the entire family.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, my my stepbrother even looked at and applied into a respiratory therapy program.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: I've got cousins that are now married into the family that are looking into the different programs, and so it's it's really nice because I I actually wanted to do radiology.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm good with computers, I like solving puzzles.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: I I think the Lord just knew that I would go crazy being in a dark room all the time.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: So he closed that door and opened a whole new path for me in respiratory therapy, and that is something that I am eternally grateful for.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: I have no clue where I would be without respiratory therapy.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_03: I always say that like my second choice would be sports medicine because I'm a huge sports guy, and like while I'm watching a game, I'm like, oh, that's an elbow.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: There went their knee, right?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: So like um so coming JJ then from a supportive family and that was willing to back you into you know this career and finding your path, then what part of little JJ still walks into a patient's room with you?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: What part of what you learn from your family walks in with you when you're treating a patient?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: I was always kind of the little like sarcastic, let me kind of poke a little bit, right?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: And and I've been able to change it from annoying to humorous, right?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: I can I can use that for humor now.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: And part of that I bring into the hospital.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: There, I understand that these patients are they're in their worst days sometimes.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes they need somebody that'll sit back and listen, and somebody that sometimes they need somebody that'll put that smile on their face.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, even even now, uh I remember as a kid, I used to have to, I was the student that sat next to the teacher because I talked too much.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um and now I get paid to talk.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you, uh, Miss Reeves, for putting me next to you.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because without that, no.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but absolutely that that is something that I bring um every time that I take care of our patients, um, educating our patients.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, for some reason, I've got like this mentoring, coaching spirit about me.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: Even in high school, I I remember coaching the underclassmen.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: I would even coach the upperclassmen whenever I was a younger guy uh as to where we wanted to be on the field at what given time.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so bringing those qualities into not only what I do as as uh as an instructor, as an associate professor, as JJ the RT online, as uh JJ, your respiratory therapist taking care of your loved one, there's always a bit of education and um like progression over perfection.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of times I tell uh our students and even even our patients that what we do is a practice because we will never get it perfect.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: We're continually trying to figure out the next best way to take care of this disease or condition.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, just from your own father, and you talked about how he wanted one doctor for everything because it's a trust, it's someone, you know, one person that he knows knows him.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: So taking that then, and you know that a patient's family, as much as the patient can be carrying a lot of fear when they go in, and and especially if you know it's around breathing and and the ability for their family member to breathe.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Has your own background and life helped you understand what a family also needs to understand in those situations?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I so I graduated a month after turning 21.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: I was a child taking care of other human beings.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I had a lot of growing up to do.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: And not until my father passed away, and it wasn't that late, but that was a real like eye-opening moment that whenever we are going through and withdrawing care for a patient, or when somebody uh is making the decision that they're gonna go towards palliative care, or uh they're in the hospital for the very first time, those are scary moments.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: Those are moments that it takes somebody to just maybe pull up a chair or grab a chair for them so that they can sit next to their loved one.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um I was way more intentional, um, I would say in the in the more 20 teens than I was the early, you know, 2008, 2009, 2010, right after I graduated.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um I think my intentionality changed whenever I had something tragic happen in my life.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but that is something that that I carry still today is letting them know that there's somebody that is alongside them that will listen, that will grab a tissue, that will, you know, clean the patient's eyes when they can't do it themselves.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, those are different things that and sometimes you think, why is a respiratory therapist doing that?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm a human taking care of a human, and that that Brings it back to the center of what we do and why we do it.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so those things, I think the coaching part of me comes from my dad.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: My dad was my little lead coach up until as long as he could be.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I think I I pulled a lot of that, the work ethic that I get from from my dad and and my stepmom, but my mom, she has the biggest heart.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's one of the things that I would kind of stave off for as long as I could.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm like, I'm a sour patch kid, right?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: Once you get past the salt, uh, I'm a big softie.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great visual.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's certainly empathy is easier to share when you've walked a similar path of some of the people in front of you, shared experiences, even without sharing those experiences sometimes.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a family that you think of and maybe that you share with your students when you're teaching them about this particular part of not just treating the family, or not just treating the patient, but treating the family and how much that maybe changed the care that that person got because their family was more comfortable because they were all in.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: The ones that stand out are the ones, the family members that end up comforting us as staff.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody that you've worked really hard to help save, somebody that you've seen in the hospital for weeks, maybe even a month or plus on end.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: And they are so grateful for everything that we give to those patients.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: Those are the ones that stand out.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I will never forget my very first pediatric code.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: I will never forget that.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we worked really hard on this 13-month-old who knew that the family, the parents knew that she was not most likely going to have a life beyond 12 months.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like she was she had some congenital defects, but she was at 13, 14 months, and she was breathing.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: I I her respiratory rate was 100 breaths per minute plus.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: Her heart rate was 200 plus.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: She was trucking.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and we we tried everything that we possibly could to help her breathe easier.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: We made the collective decision that we were gonna put her on the ventilator, put her on life support.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: And when we did that, um we saw her heart rate start to drop.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: And once it dropped below 60, we knew that we needed to start compressions, and we did, and we worked even through that code for the next 45 minutes to an hour, and the parents were there with us the entire time, and they saw us and they saw the fight that we had put into that moment, and they finally told us that it was time.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: And those are the ones, those are the ones that stick out.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's family, it's all family and it's human connection, just like you said.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and to to create a connection like that in less than two hours, it's it's such a dynamic feeling, and um and and that is something that puts us in such a wonderful position to to remember what we are doing and why.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: When the chaos is around us, when we're frustrated that you know JJ called in again, and I'm having to work short now today.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_03: When you have moments like that when family appreciates all of the efforts that you put in, it makes the biggest difference in the world.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look at a different part of connection then and go back to a little bit more of what you mentioned earlier with embracing Hispanic heritage.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now that people do see you as JJ the RT, that's one of your biggest stages and most visible um reach.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: What do you hope that a young Hispanic person especially sees when they look at you now?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think what they would probably see is the hard work.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um that is one of the things it's it's a double-edged sword.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my wife has had to teach me that I put my laptop and I put my work away when it's family time.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um it it is that was hard for me.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um and that hard work, that determination.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I I I was good in school, like in in high school.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was I was top 10, but I I didn't do anything.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to say I didn't do anything with it.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like I didn't go to a major university, like I could have.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: I went to a community college.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to continue to pursue a career in baseball, um, which gave me up pretty quickly.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I do think that the hard work that was instilled in in me through my family is something that continues to can be seen today.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, Saturdays for me, it's yard work.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like I wake up early and I'm doing the yard.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, other families, it's like yard, you know, Saturdays are when you sleep in.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's your day off.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's these things.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I just I don't I don't have that.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have that.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: Let me turn this off and sleep till 10.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: I just I don't have it.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so I think any teenager, uh, any young person that is looking to get into a healthcare fruit field, respiratory therapy is a phenomenal one, but the hard work that you put in will pay off, I promise you.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what about those who, you know, you had the gumption, you were bold enough to step into a new path, at least for your family, you know, and kind of carve your own way.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: There wasn't a blueprint for you necessarily to follow at that time.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: So for somebody who is looking at healthcare and they're not sure because it's not in front of them of the steps to follow.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they're not sure if there's a place for them.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: What do you say?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I can tell you my experience is ignorance is bliss.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I had really no clue what I was truly stepping into.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I never was afraid to say yes.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: So many people are afraid to say yes because there is an unknown behind that.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: And my ignorance, my lack of maybe fully processing the moment at the time to say yes has led me into a place that I am so grateful for to have the opportunity to share my experiences, to talk about my family.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: I I had it's my very first, my very first medical talk that I did, I talked about an experience that my Walita had at the hospital.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: There was a machine that was alarming, and it was oxygen that is heated, and the heater itself was going off.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: It was alarming because the the saline bag had run dry, and now the the air that was going into her nose was really dry and hot, the oxygen that she was receiving, and she had these nosebleeds as a result, and she's Spanish speaking only, and the staff didn't have uh a translator, so she's talking about like my nose is bleeding, my nose is bleeding, my nose is bleeding, this is uncomfortable.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: I can't wear it.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: She's so scared, yeah, scared, right?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: Now there's a risk of that bloody nose trickling back into the back of her throat, maybe even possibly going into her lungs, and then putting her on a bigger mask that covers her mouth and her nose, and then it's muffled when that happens.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: So now you have somebody that's Spanish speaking only muffling their voice, scared, talking, trying to get answers about what's going on.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: That was my first medical talk that I did, and it was more about alarm fatigue than it was anything else.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: So alarm fatigue is something where we hear the alarms going off, but we turned a deaf ear to it because it's a common sound that we hear.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, at the time, whenever I did that talk, um I an ICU at Johns Hopkins had over a hundred thousand alarms going off in their ICU at any given day.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_03: So it's possible for us to turn into like, oh yeah, that's what that is.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_03: But it's also something that we can't be casual with.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_03: So like my family has helped me not only with that determination, not only with the work ethic, but they've also been a center point in my medical talks that I do too.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they drive a whole lot of the path that that I'm on now.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so um this is this, no, hey, this has been really cool to actually sit down and reflect on how much the family, you know, impacts my life even today.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and sometimes you have to say it out loud to really come in connection with how they influenced you, all those little things along the way that you didn't realize were programming your brain in a certain way.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then you see it come out later beyond just the joking of like, oh my gosh, turning into my mom, turning into my dad, you know, that it really, it really does shape us in ways that sometimes we don't see for decades.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, on the other side of that, JJ, is I, you know, I know from personal experience, and so I'm sure there are at least some in your family who do this also, who might be sharing with their friends, their neighbors at church of like, oh, my, you know, my son, my grandson, my nephew, yeah, he's on um, he's on the internet, he he has a show, he teaches, he, you know, and so they know what you do.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if you were to really show them, if you could pick one thing to show them now so that they really see, and maybe it's something that if you could show your dad now of where you've come, who you are, and how they have factored in, what would you want that to be?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think my the influence that I have, I never would have thought, never would have thought I would have had the influence that I do.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um from petitioning and fighting for people to uh obtain awards that are at the highest level for a respiratory therapist, um, for hospitals to reach out and ask, hey, how do we get X, Y, and Z involved into our department?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, to be on a podcast like this, to be regularly on RT sidebar, to have a social media platform like JJ the RT, it's it's influence.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um and John Maxwell is one of my favorite leadership coaches, and he talks about leadership, and and uh he says leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_03: And like I never would have thought the amount of influence that I have for our national organization for respiratory therapists to be reaching out and asking me if I'd be willing to do something for them.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_03: The committees, the organizations, those level I I got asked to write a chapter in a textbook.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, yeah.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: No, what not like to be published, like those were never on my dream board, and now those are realities, and so it's that level of influence again insane.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you are one of our voices of vital care, you are it and living it.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um so to piggyback off of that and you know, kind of round this out, JJ, with that type of influence, then what does also celebrating your heritage mean to you at this point in your life?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: I think it I think it means most when the generation changes from me to the next one.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: When my name is carried on to our next generation, that's when like I'm gonna lose it.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um when that time comes.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_04: Everything that my walitos and whelitos, my dias, my deals, my parents, mom, dad, stepmom, everybody.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_04: Who had a part to play in my life.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_04: When I get to transition everything to the next generation.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_04: I don't even know what to finish that with.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's where you take influence to impact.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's legacy, JJ.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_04: That's 100%.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's it.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it all circles back to where we came from, who we are embracing it, owning it, and sharing it with the world.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: We say on RT sidebar it's not a good podcast unless somebody's eye sweat.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_03: And we're there today, y'all.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: The workout is happening.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's real, JJ.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't tell you how much I've appreciated this conversation, how much I know others will appreciate this conversation also, and how relatable it is, and hopefully encourages others to also do a little self-reflection about who they are, where they came from, and how that's shaped them as they step forward.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I really want to thank you for being so open, not just for me, but for everyone today.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_03: You guys are amazing.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: Usually I'm pulling this out of other people.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: You guys are fantastic.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, JJ.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: And for all of you, the path into healthcare begins in different places for all of us.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: For someone listening, maybe it starts with a family conversation, a person who believes in them or the first time that they see someone like JJ and think, I could do that too.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we are grateful for the chance to hear what heritage means through your experience and how it continues to shape lives and JJ through your work.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: We want to thank all of you for watching and listening to Voices of Vital Care.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to subscribe for more conversations about the people, the experiences, the possibilities, all shaping healthcare today.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Nohe Lani Graff.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: We will see you next time.