Star Tribune
Children’s Minnesota debuts hospital gowns that actually close
When Mona Rippy took her 7-year-old son for surgery at Children’s Minnesota, he was embarrassed to find that the only hospital gowns available were ones that exposed his backside.
As Muslims, Rippy wanted an option for her son to cover himself and dress more modestly, but it didn’t exist. It’s been an issue for other Muslim families as well, and Children’s staff started looking into a solution a few years ago, said Rippy, who leads the hospital’s Muslim Employee Resource Group.
To address this, the hospital on Tuesday announced new “modesty gowns,” which will be offered to all pediatric patients as part of a new partnership with the Minnesota-based company Henna & Hijabs. These modesty gowns are among the first offered in the country for pediatric patients, the hospital says. Rippy said she and her son, who is now 11, are “thrilled” about the addition.
“Whether a patient is Muslim or not, we know that this gown will serve a purpose for so many kids and make their hospital stay a better experience,” said Rippy, who also works as a change-management consultant.
Unlike typical hospital gowns, these can be closed along the back with buttons. There are also buttons along the collar for attaching a head covering. The sleeves are extended to cover about three-quarters of the patient’s arms, and the gown can be reversed so the buttons are in the front. The hospital consulted with nurses, doctors and clinical staff to ensure the design still had the features required for hospital gowns, Rippy said.
They were created with Muslims in mind, but will be offered to any patient who wants a gown that covers more of their body. They were designed by Henna & Hijabs founder and CEO Hilal Ibrahim, who said the need goes far beyond Muslims; she thinks many will benefit from the gowns.
“We all want to feel dignified,” Ibrahim said following a news conference Tuesday about the new gowns. “It’s a vulnerable space, and we want to feel covered and comfortable. To create a gown that fits exactly that and meets that need has been incredible.”
Ibrahim founded her company in 2017, and in 2019 created the first ever medical-grade hijab for health care workers. She said an adult version of the modesty gowns is still a work in progress.
Part of the need came from the fact that Children’s serves a relatively large Muslim and Somali population. During a photo shoot for the gowns at Children’s, one Muslim patient overheard what was going on and was so excited that she asked to model some of the gowns herself, Rippy said.
“She couldn’t wait to try it on and express how she felt seen,” Rippy said.
The hospital did not say how much it is spending on the new gowns.
The gowns are one step by Children’s to offer more inclusive and equitable care to its patients, nearly 40% of whom are people of color. But it was also an opportunity to partner with a local minority-owned supplier, another priority for Children’s, according to senior equity and inclusion consultant Allen Malicsi.
“It’s a way we show up in the community, trying to figure out where we can provide a spending opportunity for businesses that are minority-owned” and also “create that economic inclusion opportunity around the Children’s system,” Malicsi said.
The new gowns will offered to some of the patients in March as part of a pilot phase before later rolling them out for all patients, according to a hospital news release.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
