Sometimes finding your calling is a matter of paying attention. And Master of Science in Respiratory Care student Raquel Gutierrez was watching — and listening — closely during multiple life events that led her to her future profession.
While in premature labor with her second child, Gutierrez heard a doctor say, “Call for respiratory. We’re about to deliver.” She didn’t know about respiratory therapy at the time, but what she learned during her daughter’s birth and stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) made an impression.
Later, in her role as an emergency room patient intake coordinator, she heard it again: “Call respiratory.” Gutierrez observed the respiratory therapist’s role in the ER and realized the variety of units they work in and procedures they are part of.
“I thought it was the most amazing thing,” she said.
Then, when her father was seriously ill with COVID-19 and hospitalized for almost a month, she witnessed the impact of the treatments he received from respiratory therapists.
“He got to the point where we thought he may not make it, and it was then and there the respiratory therapists were the ones who saved his life,” she said.
Gutierrez believes these experiences illuminated the path that has led her to graduate this spring from the Master of Science in Respiratory Care program in the School of Health Professions.
A heart for helping
Gutierrez grew up in San Antonio and moved to Florida for college, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology and pre-medicine.
“My initial plans were to go to medical school, but I had a little boy and then I had my daughter on the way, so I couldn’t,” she said. “I knew I had to put that aside. I knew medical school was a huge commitment.”
Gutierrez researched respiratory programs all over the country. Ultimately, she chose the Master of Science in Respiratory Care program at UT Health San Antonio — which offers one of just eight entry-to-profession respiratory care master’s degree programs in the U.S. — in part because she wanted to be in San Antonio.
“I wanted to move back home where I was close to family,” she said.
Once in the program, Gutierrez learned that the field of respiratory care is even more complex and rewarding than she expected. She was particularly fascinated by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, a life-support system for people in severe heart or lung failure that involves pumping blood outside the body to remove carbon dioxide and oxygenate it before returning it for circulation.
“As I got into the program, they went into all the subspecialties you can do in [respiratory therapy],” such as the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) and NICU, said Gutierrez. “I knew we were important for treatment, but just the fact we are extremely important for codes and intubations — most people don’t know how important respiratory therapists are.”
Gutierrez has served in key leadership roles for her class, program and student-professional organizations. She is president of the program’s Sputum Bowl team, served as chair of the Texas Society for Respiratory Care Student Council and as the graduation chair for her program. In April, she traveled to Baltimore for a clinical practicum working the night shift in the NICU and PICU at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
In addition to her studies and volunteer work, Gutierrez works part-time as a respiratory therapy assistant at a local hospital. But on the weekends, this mother of three can be found teeing up on the green with her son or gliding across the ice with her daughter as she rediscovers two hobbies of her youth she is now sharing with her kids.
“I just got my skates,” she said. “Daughter and mom time.”
Watch this video to hear Raquel describe her experience in the Master of Science in Respiratory Care program.