“It’s very special to me to work in the place that saved my life”

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10/23/2024

Emily Acosta

Respiratory therapist Emily Acosta was treated at Riley as a newborn; now she takes care of newborns and their moms in the Riley Maternity Tower.

By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

Emily Acosta had her first exposure to Riley Hospital for Children when she was just hours old. Born four decades ago at another Indianapolis hospital, she was rushed to Riley after she suffered meconium aspiration and became septic at birth.

Emily Acosta

These days, she rushes from one tricky delivery to another as a respiratory therapist on the Stork Team at Riley, caring for moms and babies in the three-year-old Riley Maternity Tower.

She really has come full circle, and she couldn’t be more satisfied to be where she is today.

Her own birth was traumatic for mother and baby. While she was intubated and struggling in the NICU at Riley, her mom was also very ill and remained at the other hospital recovering for several weeks. Acosta’s dad was torn between being at his daughter’s side and his wife’s.

That early experience placed Acosta on a medical career path, and the only hospital she ever wanted to work at was Riley.

As someone who has dealt with health issues, including autoimmune disease and respiratory illnesses, most of her life, she said she always knew that working in the RT field would be worthwhile so she could help other kids.

“It’s very special to me to work in the place that saved my life,” she said.

Emily Acosta and Dr. Lemons

Last year, she bumped into Dr. Jim Lemons, one of the neonatologists who cared for her as an infant at Riley, and she made sure to get a photo with him. That connection between her past and her present sneaks up on her sometimes.

“There are moments on certain days that make me remember this is where it all started for me.”

A respiratory therapist for nearly 20 years, she spent many years working in the PICU at Riley, taking care of the sickest patients and advancing into a clinical specialist/educator role.

In the fall of 2020, she moved over to IU Health Methodist Hospital to join the Riley NICU team there, caring for preemies and other medically fragile infants born at Methodist.

When the Riley Maternity Tower opened in November 2021, she moved back to Riley, where she is a member of one of the unit’s Stork Teams: three-pronged emergency teams that include an advanced practice provider, nurse and respiratory therapist, who attend all high-risk births (C-sections, multiple babies, those with identified heart and spinal conditions and other complicating risk factors) – any delivery where resuscitation might be needed.

“We have multiple Stork teams present at all times,” Acosta said. “I just came back from a delivery of twins, so we had two Stork teams present – one for each baby. That dedicated delivery team is really nice to have, and the data show it is making a difference.”

On any given day, there are 10 RTs working as part of a Stork Team, as well as seven or eight on nights, she said.

Emily Acosta

Moving to the Maternity Tower, where she has also taken on the clinical specialist role, was important to her for many reasons, one of them being the traumatic deliveries she had with her own children, now 10 and 12 years old and healthy.

One of her sons had to be resuscitated after delivery, a fact she and her husband, Brandon, will never forget.

“Every time I resuscitate a baby, I think of my son,” she said.

Although birth plans don’t always end up going the way parents expect, Acosta is passionate about helping moms and babies through any scenario.

Emily Acosta

While she is a clinical specialist for the Stork Team, most of her focus is on the moms in the OB ICU, she said. She develops and leads training for the RTs who work in the OB ICU.

“Stepping into this role has been amazing for me. I love caring for the babies and moms and creating all the education. It has been awesome to share that knowledge to provide the best care to moms when they’re in the ICU,” Acosta said.

“Throughout my years here, I’ve seen traumatic, heartbreaking things, but I’ve also seen a lot of magic happen and a lot of compassionate people who work here and a lot of really great care that happens in these walls.”

Photos submitted and by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org