Personal experience fuels Alex to help families navigate complex health needs
Alex puts compassion into action
For families with a child who has special needs, often it can feel like the world is spinning. Everything from daily tasks to navigating the health care system can be challenging.
For Alex Dominguez, a complex health expert at UnitedHealthcare, removing these barriers to care isn’t just part of his job — it’s deeply personal.
From parent to advocate
Alex is a proud dad, who is inspired daily by his children. When his twins were born at 25 weeks old, each had their own set of serious medical complications.
“Everything we knew that was our normal had to change because of the introduction of our son, a highly complex child,” Alex said. “Zander had about 29 surgeries altogether in his lifetime. And each one of those surgeries were stressful and overwhelming.”
Zander and his twin sister, Tabitha, were both diagnosed with cerebral palsy. In addition, Zander had other medical conditions that required him to be in a wheelchair and have full-time care. Despite his challenges, Zander was always smiling.
“He was just the happiest, most joyful boy that’s ever existed on this planet,” Alex said. “You couldn’t do any wrong to him. He loved everybody.”
When Zander was 12 years old, he underwent a surgery that was just too much for his body.
“We did lose Zander and that was a difficult time for all of us,” Alex said. “There’s a lot of reasons why Zander was brought into our life — one of the reasons, I think, was to help me be able to have compassion for families with special needs.”
The experience led Alex to dive into a career where he could make a difference for families navigating complex health needs.
'Not everybody can speak that language'
As a complex health expert, Alex works with UnitedHealthcare medical directors, nurses and family care advisors to help find solutions for special needs families, often in a time of crisis. It’s a scenario Alex knows well.
“We’ve lived and breathed their lives. We’ve gone through the heartaches, we’ve gone through the pain, living in hospitals for months at a time,” he said. “It's tough and not everybody can speak that language. It's foreign to them.”
It also helps give him a leg up on how to approach each situation.
“The first thing I do is I try to figure out, what did I do in that situation? What exactly was my next step?” Alex said. “So it makes it easier to work some of these cases because I've been through these cases, I've done these things. I've already jumped the hurdle.”
That makes the victories that much sweeter, too.
“When we have a win, it’s the best feeling in the world,” he said. “I tell people all the time — I don’t know how I have this job. It feels so meaningful.”
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