The Mighty Blog features stories from around Children’s Minnesota, as well as health and wellness information for raising healthy kids.

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‘Vincent is a miracle’: Toddler thrives after treatment using cutting-edge ‘heart and lung machine’

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

Santiago’s fetal spina bifida repair procedure, the 100th performed at the Midwest Fetal Care Center

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.

Tips for handling sports injuries and kids

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.

Young adult cancer survivor reunites with his physician: Dario’s story

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. 

The kid experts put Natasha and her family at ease during heart surgery

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.

Celebrating National Interpreter Appreciation Day

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.

Ashley’s childhood cancer diagnosis in 1985 inspires her still today

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.

From the archives: Children’s Minnesota in the 1940s

In honor of the100th anniversary of Children's Minnesota, every month in 2024 we’ll share compelling stories from our archives. Each month will feature a different decade. Here, we continue with the 1940s, which saw recovery from the financial crisis of the 1930s, some new challenges brought on by World War II and early talk of a children’s hospital in Minneapolis.

Peter perseveres through a brain tumor diagnosis with the help of our first-of-its-kind surgery suite

In September 2023, Peter and his family got the scary news – MRI scans revealed a large, slow-growing and non-cancerous brain tumor.

National Volunteer Appreciation Week 2024 at Children’s Minnesota

In honor of National Volunteer Appreciation Week, volunteer services staff visited the Children’s Minnesota archives in search of articles about volunteers or volunteering. Here's what they found. Enjoy the stories from our archives in celebration of our 100-year anniversary!