Javier Saavedra, 35

By Barbara Connors

If someone could turn lemons into lemonade, it’s Javier Saavedra. In 1997, the 24-year-old minor league soccer player from Colombia found his life shattered when he was the victim of a drive-by shooting while visiting relatives in Guatemala. The senseless crime left him paralyzed from the waist down from a spinal cord injury.

Saavedra, who spent part of his high school years in Dixon, Ill., decided there was more opportunity in the United States to rehabilitate himself and pursue a good life. “In Guatemala, I was in need of medical attention and suffering from bedsores, infection and malnutrition.” He has lived in Roscoe, Machesney Park and Rockford ever since and made quite a life for himself.

One of his sources for inspiration was meeting with Christopher Reeve at a benefit in Rockford. As athletic men in their prime, it is easy to see why. Now he’s an advocate for others through the National Center for Latinos with Disabilities and the Statewide Hispanic Advisory Council on Rehabilitation Services. It is through these activities that he met his wife Heidi, a communications specialist at one time with La Voz Latina.

To keep close to his favorite sport, Saavedra coaches youth soccer. “I thought if I couldn’t play, at least I could do something to enjoy the game.” Not willing to fall back on his experience, he has honed his coaching skills by obtaining an IHSA certification to coach soccer at the secondary level, and is licensed and certified as a soccer official by the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Saavedra has coached for East, Guilford, Auburn, Lutheran and Rockford Christian High Schools, as well as for the Raptor Youth Soccer League. He also has volunteered his time as a board member for Big Brothers Big Sisters and currently volunteers with the Haven Network as a grief counselor.

“I’ve gone through many kids and all of it has been a remarkable experience,” Saavedra said. “Coaching and the sport itself have left me with so many rewarding memories. Soccer is the true love of my life after my wife.”

Saavedra said he particularly likes the lessons that sports teach children. “I teach them that the sky’s the limit. People who play sports tend to do better in life. It plays a part in making them disciplined persons.”

Being bilingual in English and Spanish has given Saavedra some distinct advantages in the job market, and he has used them well. He has applied his language skills as well as his experiences overcoming physical challenges to serve as an interpreter for Spanish-speaking patients at various area medical facilities. “While I was being treated for my personal injuries, and I was in and out of many medical facilities, I thought that this town needed an advocate for people with language barriers who could not understand what doctors and the medical personnel were telling them. I thought to myself that this was something that I could do and at the same time be the best at it.”

At Triune Health Group, with locations in Rockford and Oak Brook (Ill.), where he works as Medical Management Coordinator, he handles case management services between medical nursing staff and Spanish-speaking clients. He also manages sensitive case files and translates documents. He also does telephonic interpretation for Language Line and is the staff interpreter for the Rockford Orthopedics Associates Surgery Center in Rockford. On weekends, he works as guest services medical interpreter and interprets for Spanish-speaking patients in the emergency department at Centegra Health System in Woodstock-Crystal Lake (Ill.).

Saavedra is part of an undoubtedly emerging field — medical interpretation. He figures at least 35 percent of the area is Hispanic – and growing.

To sharpen his skills, he’s completed the Cross Cultural Health Care Program and the interpreter training at the Medical Interpreter Training Institute at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “It’s the most advanced medical interpretation institute in the United States,” Saavedra said.

“This training has helped me to understand and gain so much knowledge in a field where you have to remain very sharp for the complex cases that you face every day.”