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Larissa Gonzalez, a nurse in Texas, was working as an ICU nurse when she was hospitalized herself for the premature birth of her son, Caleb

That experience, including his lengthy NICU stay, prompted a career change

"I want to be the one helping these families and helping these babies get to their next step, just give them the start that they need," she tells PEOPLE

Texas nurse Larissa Gonzalez never expected to deliver her son eight weeks early, via an emergency cesarean section, or for him to spend a “grueling” 31 days in the neonatal intensive care unit so close to where she’d been working just down the hall.

But her family’s experience prompted a surprising career change for Gonzalez, a former ICU nurse who once insisted “I cannot work with babies, they're too small, t

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