Roberto Garcia
Roberto Garcia, Photo by Klare Perez
It wasn’t until Roberto Garcia’s 14-year-old nephew was put on a ventilator at Methodist Children’s Hospital that he ever considered entering the medical field.
His nephew had muscular dystrophy and Garcia, then 17, remembers being both comforted and fascinated as he watched the respiratory therapist manage the ventilator that was essentially acting as the teenager’s lungs. Garcia’s nephew eventually passed away from complications of his disorder, but Garcia says that only cemented his resolve to become the first in his family to attend college so he could care for other patients. “In the midst of that tough time I was able to find a positive and a career path,” he says.