864: Chicago Hope
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A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbearped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, ThisAmericanLife.org. From WBE's East Chicago to This American Life, I'm out of class. A couple years ago, one of our producers put together this story that just got too big for our show. It couldn't be contained in an hour or two hours, and so it spun out into its own podcast series called The Retrievals. It was a big hit. Maybe you heard it. I don't know if it works as a serial of New York Times produced it. Anyway, now that producer, Susan Burton, is back, but the story that is just as compelling and they have released it as season two of The Retrievals. At first, I heard drafts of this months ago, and I am very excited that we can present one of the episodes for you today. I have to say, one of the things that I really like about this story is that by the end, it turns out to be surprisingly hopeful. She also invented this way to tell a radio story. I have never heard anybody try. I hope you like it. I think you'll like it. The story takes place in a hospital's labor and delivery unit, and there's some description in here of medical procedures and things don't go well. Just heads up. Here, Susan. 6 a.m. in Chicago. Of course, the shot starts at the lake. Camera pans over the water, and the magnificent buildings rise from the shoreline, twinkling in the dawn light. We continue across the city, still bird's eye view, over the grid, over the elevated tracks in wide highways, coming to rest in a western suburb. Drop down to a brick bungalow, where, inside, a woman, late 30s, we'll have softly passed the bedrooms where her children sleep and steps out the front door to meet the morning. Windchill of 20 below. She hurries to a minivan, and as she pulls away from the curb, we see the streets frosted with salt. The moon shining high and hard, and we see her work ID, where she keeps it on the center console. The words "bored certified RN" and her name in all caps. This is Mindy Figueroa. Mindy says she was made to be a nurse. I think I was just born to be in healthcare. Like as a kid, my sister would find all the dolls and the ballet slippers at the Dollar Tree, like, section. But I always got the doctor kid. The stethoscope, the little syringe, always, always, always. So it was just always a thing. Mindy was the first one in her family to go to college. Her parents came to this country undocumented from Mexico, worked factory jobs, earned citizenship. Mindy paid her way through school, got her degree, started out at a small hospital, and after a few years, transferred up to a big one, UI Health at the University of Illinois
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