Nurse Heals Others in the Same Neonatology Unit That Saved Her Decades Ago

Laura Martinez’s life began in crisis.

Born weighing 11 pounds (five kilograms), she experienced complications during delivery when she became stuck in the birth canal. In the frantic effort to save her, the nerves in her right arm were torn. She was whisked away to the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital (LLUCH) in Loma Linda, California, United States. There, tiny and intubated, she stayed for nearly a month.

“I’ve always known about my NICU story,” Martinez said. “It was a part of my life from the very beginning.”

The injury left her right arm visibly weaker, with limited movement. As she grew up, LLUCH remained a constant, through surgeries, physical therapy, and checkups. Yet, rather than view the hospital as a place of trauma, Martinez began to see it as a place of possibility.

“I just knew I wanted to become a nurse,” she said.

That ambition was not always welcomed. In nursing school, Martinez was told she should drop out, that her disability posed too many liabilities. But she refused. Instead, she pushed harder: taking on three part-time jobs while studying, determined to prove herself.

“I think I was traumatized by people telling me I couldn’t do it, so I did above and beyond, just to show that I could.”

Her persistence paid off. A classmate mentioned a residency program opening in the NICU at LLUCH. Martinez hesitated, almost too long, before applying just hours before the deadline, and got accepted.

Now, nine years later, she walks the same halls where she once lay swaddled in an isolette. She cares for the most fragile of patients: premature infants, babies born with severe complications, newborns struggling to breathe.

For her the work is personal.

“Parents come in with so much sadness because this isn’t the birth plan they imagined,” she said. “I feel as though there’s a reason I’m there, to give them some peace, even if it’s just a small update.”

Her ability to speak Spanish often creates an instant bond with Spanish-only speakers, and she is grateful to use her bilingual skills to help patients understand the complexities of their child’s diagnosis.

Sometimes families whose babies suffer shoulder dystocia, the same complication she endured, find reassurance in her story. “They’ll tell me, ‘Okay, so it’s not that bad. And I tell them, ‘It’s all what you put into it.’”

The work is demanding, emotionally and physically. But for Martinez, it is also healing.

“It’s as if something inside of me heals every time I go to work,” she said.

Now, while continuing her shifts in the NICU, Martinez is pursuing a doctorate to become a nurse practitioner. She hopes to follow up with NICU graduates in high-risk clinics, caring for them as they grow.

Looking back on her own life, from a fragile newborn to a seasoned nurse, Martinez sees more than coincidence.

“It feels as though everything was already written,” she said. “As though this was where I was always supposed to be.”

Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital has been named one of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals 2025 by Newsweek and Statista, recognized for excellence in caring for mothers, newborns, and families with comprehensive services, including C-section suites and a Level IV NICU.

The original version of this story was posted on the Loma Linda University Health news site.