Care by the Sea: A History of Medicine in Nueces County

CARE BY THE SEA
A History of Medicine in
Nueces County
by Bill and Marjorie K. Walraven
A publication of the
Nueces County Medical Society

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CARE BY THE SEA
A History of Medicine in
Nueces County
by Bill and Marjorie K. Walraven
A publication of the Nueces County Medical Society
Historical Publishing Network
A division of Lammert Incorporated
San Antonio, Texas

❖ Above: The Nueces County Medical Society and Alliance members visit with Texas Representative Todd Hunter during First Tuesdays at the Capitol in 2010.
Opposite, from top to bottom: Nueces County Medical Society members answer phone calls from the public during the 5 p.m. news Ask the Doctor program at KIII-TV.
NCMS President John McKeever is interviewed about the Medical Society’s stance on the Las Brisas power plant proposal.
A KIII-TV reporter prepares to interview NCMS members that had volunteered for the Ask the Doctor booth at the 2009 Health Fair.
Dr. James Dinn, an orthopedic surgeon, discusses bones and fossils at an outreach program at Ray High School.
NCMS members hold a press conference in support of the Smoke Free Corpus Christi initiative.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE NUECES COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
Copyright © 2012 Historical Publishing Network
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing
from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790.
ISBN: 9781935377740
Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2012931882
Care by the Sea: A History of Medicine in Nueces County
authors: Bill and Marjorie K. Walraven
cover artist: Maureen Reeves Tarazon
contributing writer for sharing the heritage: Garnette Bane
Historical Publishing Network
president: Ron Lammert
project manager: Barry Black
administration: Donna M. Mata, Melissa G. Quinn
book sales: Dee Steidle
production: Colin Hart, Evelyn Hart, Glenda Tarazon Krouse, Omar Wright
2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

CONTENTS
4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
5 CHAPTER 1 T h e E a r l y D a y s
6 CHAPTER 2 D r. S p o h n A r r i v e s
12 CHAPTER 3 T h e C i t y G r o w s
17 CHAPTER 4 D o c t o r s a t Wa r
20 CHAPTER 5 D r. H e c t o r
23 CHAPTER 6 T h e P o s t w a r Ye a r s
27 CHAPTER 7 T h e N a v y a n d t h e C i t y
31 CHAPTER 8 F o r t h e C h i l d r e n
37 CHAPTER 9 M o r e G r o w t h a n d H C A
41 CHAPTER 10 T h e S o c i e t y ’s A c c o m p l i s h m e n t s
45 CHAPTER 11 T h e S p o h n S y s t e m
53 CHAPTER 12 Te c h n o l o g y a n d P r e v e n t i v e C a r e
58 CHAPTER 13 A N e w C e n t u r y
64 SOURCES
65 SHARING THE HERITAGE
85 SPONSORS
86 ABOUT THE AUTHORS
87 ABOUT THE ARTIST
C o n t e n t s ✦ 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many people deserve recognition for the story of medicine in the Coastal Bend and for the production of this book. Much of
the information about the medical pioneers and the providers of later days came from A Century of Caring, 1904-2004, the
September/October 2004 centennial edition of Coastal Bend Medicine, the publication of the Nueces County Medical Society, edited
by Dr. John R. Pettigrove.
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times opened its archives to us, and Allison Ehrlich, Caller-Times librarian, gave invaluable assistance.
Paulette Shaw, executive director of the Nueces County Medical Society, gave constructive suggestions and, with communications
director Susan Davis, important photographs. Linda Powell, marketing director for the CHRISTUS Spohn Health System provided
valuable information and photographs, and Dr. Mary Peterson and Dr. Carolyn Taylor of Driscoll Children’s Hospital gave us access
to records and photographs of that institution. Bill W. Love, public affairs officer of the Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi provided
a wealth of information about medicine aboard the Naval Air Station. Gerlinda Riojas and Veronica Martinez of the Corpus Christi
Public Libraries sent us priceless images from the libraries’ collection, and Jesenia Guerra of the Corpus Christi Museum of Science
and History also helped us with illustrations. Dr. Charles Lewis Concklin, Dr. Herbert Madalin, and Dr. Damon Bernwanger
provided interesting stories of their experiences, and Dr. Everett L. “Bud” Holt contributed his by e-mail.
The heroes of the story, however, are all the physicians, additional medical personnel, and other interested citizens, both named and
unnamed, whose skills and dedication have served the area well since Corpus Christi was a sleepy fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico.
Bill and Marjorie K. Walraven
November 2011
4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ Corpus Christi Bayfront Pier and wharves in the 1800s.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
C H A P T E R 1
THE EARLY DAYS
In 1854 a small merchant vessel docked
at Bayfront Pier in Corpus Christi. The
population crowded around, starved
for fresh produce. Grocers chose meat,
fresh vegetables, and fruit—pineapples,
oranges, lemons, limes, and mangos. They
paid little attention to the swarms of mosquitoes
in the ship’s hold. In two weeks
every home in the city was visited by a
terrible specter. The dreaded yellow fever
had turned the town into a “fever ward.”
Almost every family mourned a loss,
and in some cases whole families were
wiped out. “Scarce a family escaped, but
the cold weather came or the disease
died out for want of new victims,” one
account reported. “The Christmas of
1854 was a sad holiday…Corpus Christi,
the stricken, mourned its dead.”
The terrible specter returned in 1867.
A man rode in from Indianola and died
the next day, setting off a new plague that
would take the lives of one-third of the
city’s residents. So many fell ill that few
were available to bury the dead, and so
many coffins were needed that lumber
intended for a new Presbyterian Church
was used to make them.
Ironically, the tragedy helped diminish
the lingering bitterness of the Civil War.
Judge Edmund J. Davis, who had served
as a brigadier general in the Union Army,
turned his home into a hospital and helped
care for the sick and dying. This probably
earned him respect from even William H.
Maltby, a staunchly Confederate critic of
Reconstruction. Maltby’s wife and other
family members died in the plague. Mrs.
Annie Moore Schwein, who was born a
slave in Corpus Christi in 1856, told how
Davis brought “Dr. [Thomas] Kearny here
from Havana at his own expense after the
three doctors, Merriman, Robertson and
Johnson, all died of the fever.”
In 1869, after another outburst of
yellow fever, Dr. Kearney took the post
of quarantine officer for the port of
Corpus Christi, a position he held until
the quarantine ended later that year.
Another who nursed the plague victims
was Mary Nolan Hutchinson. Mary
Nolan had come to Texas from New York
with her two young brothers, Matt and
Tom, after their parents died on the
voyage from Ireland. Penniless and with
no means of support, she had signed up
as a U.S. Army matron and enlisted her
10- and 12-year-old brothers as buglers.
After going south with the Army in the
Mexican War, they returned to Corpus
Christi. Matt and Tom grew up to
become Rangers and lawmen, and both
were shot to death in the violence of
the late 1800s. Mary married Charles
Hutchinson, who died in the 1850s, possibly
in the first yellow fever epidemic.
During the Civil War, Mary nursed sick
soldiers. An early resident said, “She was
one who was a real angel of mercy. All
creeds. All colors alike. In sickness, death or
trouble, it was never too cold or too stormy
or too late to go to the sick and needy.”
In 1876, less than ten years after the
1867 epidemic, “a few doctors got together
over Sudbury’s store…” and organized
the Nueces County Medical Association.
Dr. E. A. Nott was elected president;
Dr. A. E. Spohn, vice president; Dr. T. H.
Nott, corresponding secretary; Dr. L. S.
Burke, recording secretary, and a Dr.
Hamilton treasurer. Less than two weeks
later Dr. Burke called a meeting of the
Southwestern Texas Medical Association
to be held in Corpus Christi.
It was with the arrival in the city of
Dr. Spohn that the story of medicine in
Corpus Christi began to crystallize.
❖ Matt Nolan, lawman and brother of nurse
Mary Nolan.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 5

❖ With assistants, Dr. Spohn, second from left, performs cyst pathology surgery.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
C H A P T E R 2
DR. SPOHN ARRIVES
Dr. Arthur E. Spohn, born in Canada
and trained at McGill University in
Montreal, was sent to Texas in 1868 as U.S.
surgeon in charge of the military quarantine
at Galveston. He first moved to
Corpus Christi in 1872 and in 1876 he
married Sarah J. Kenedy, daughter of
wealthy rancher Mifflin Kenedy. During his
lifetime the doctor spent a good deal of
time honing his professional skills, taking
a series of postgraduate courses around the
country and visiting hospitals in Europe.
A civic leader, Dr. Spohn was among
those invited to be on the maiden trip to
Laredo of the Texas-Mexican Railroad,
later known as the “Manana Express,” on
September 28, 1881. It was a warm day,
and after District Attorney D. McNeill
Turner, a minister’s son, prepared the
punch, an unknown person added three
gallons of alcohol and twelve quarts of
champagne to the mix. Someone, possibly
Judge James O. Luby of San Diego,
wrote an epic poem describing what
happened, including this passage:
With the medical corps Hamilton quietly sat.
Dr. Spohn on the drum played rat-ta-tat.
Doctor Turpin mourning the loss of his hat.
On the excursion to Laredo.
Arthur Spohn, however, was a doctor
ahead of his time. In 1870 he had invented
an elastic rubber-ring tourniquet for
bloodless operations that many armies of
the world used as a field instrument. On
November 20, 1891, he successfully
performed the first Porro-Caesarian delivery
of osteomalacia, or softening of the
bones, in the United States. As late as
2000 he was listed in the Guinness Book
of World Records for removing an ovarian
❖ Dr. Arthur E. Spohn, physician and visionary.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

cyst that weighed 328 pounds. The
patient survived the 1905 surgery.
He married Sarah Kenedy, a union that
gave him a close connection with the
King and Kleberg families of the fabled
King Ranch, as Sarah’s father, Mifflin
Kenedy, had been a partner of ranch
founder Richard King. Dr. Spohn became
a neighbor and close friend, as well as the
physician, of Alice King Kleberg, daughter
of Richard and Henrietta King, and
her husband, Robert J. Kleberg, at a home
they maintained in Corpus Christi. He
delivered all five of the Kleberg children.
❖ Captain Mifflin Kenedy.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
The friendship was no doubt intensified
in 1888 when the doctor spectacularly
saved the life of Willie Chamberlain,
Henrietta King’s younger half-brother.
Chamberlain was bitten by a rabid coyote
at the ranch. Desperate, Dr. Spohn rushed
with Willie to Paris in time to have Louis
Pasteur administer his newly discovered
inoculation. In a news story from Paris,
journalist James Gordon Bennett wrote
that Pasteur had said, “Our Willie is
saved,” and Chamberlain became one of
the first bitten humans to be spared a
horrible rabies death.
❖ Robert J. Kleberg, Sr., friend and neighbor of
Dr. Spohn.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Most of the medical care of the late
nineteenth century seems to have been
home based—the patient’s dining room
table, a kerosene lamp, and cistern or
well water serving as operating-room
equipment. Dr. Spohn did perform several
operations at Incarnate Word Convent,
assisted by Mother Angelique, and also
used the home of Carlota Versain Rossi
and her half-sister, Concha Rodriquez,
at 817 North Tancahua to treat patients
who came from ranches in the county.
A few months after George Blucher
bought Corpus Christi’s first automobile,
an Oldsmobile, in 1901, Dr. Alfred
Heaney followed suit. He tried to take
French-born Monsignor Claude Jaillet,
who had served outlying areas so well he
was known as the “saddlebag priest of the
Nueces,” for a ride, but the priest refused
to get into the “devilish contraption.” Dr.
Heaney put his automobile to use after
Sam Anderson, foreman of the Coleman-
Fulton Cattle Co., suffered a concussion
when a horse fell on him. The doctor
drove it to the reef road on North Beach,
rode a bicycle across the San Antonio-
Aransas Pass railroad trestle, and took a
horse and buggy the rest of the way.
Dr. Spohn soon ordered a Cadillac
to keep up with his competition. He used
it with consideration. Dairyman Peter
McBride was coming to town in a mule
cart when he encountered Dr. Spohn’s auto.
“I kept trying to hold the mules back,”
McBride said, “but they were scared and
there was no stopping them. Dr. Spohn
stopped his automobile so we could get by.”
Dr. Spohn served as president of the
Nueces County Medical Society in 1904,
which the present-day society considers
its founding date. Dr. Henry Raymond
was secretary. In addition to the two officers,
five members were Drs. H. S. Burke,
W. E. Carruth, G. W. Gregory, A. G. Heaney,
and G. A. Seal. Dues were $2.00 a year,
and when an increase to $3.00 was
proposed for the following year, so
many members threatened to quit that
the idea was dropped.
Troubled by the lack of medical facilities
in the city, in 1895 Dr. Spohn had started
a campaign to raise funds for a hospital.
Alice Kleberg helped raise $6,000 for the
project, and around 1903 Robert J. Kleberg
prepared a drawing of the sanitarium and
donated land for it on North Beach.
❖ Monsignor Claude Jaillet.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 7

Dr. Spohn asked Bishop Peter Verdaguer
of Brownsville to aid in staffing, and the
bishop asked the Sisters of the Incarnate
Word in San Antonio for help. Dr. Spohn
told the sisters that if they would agree to
take over running the hospital, it would
be deeded without charge to the congregation
for as long as it would be “used for
the purpose of operating and maintaining
a sanitarium for all persons…and for no
other purposes whatever.”
❖ Home of Dr. A. G. Heaney.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ Bishop Peter Verdaguer.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
After a dusty buggy ride from San
Antonio, Mother Mary Cleophas Hurst
and three other nuns, Sisters Mary
Conrad, Mary Regina, and Mary Austin,
arrived in Corpus Christi on July 16,
1905, to take over the new hospital. They
had added the $5,000 needed to complete
building and furnishing the hospital
and even provided fresh produce from
their own vegetable garden.
Spohn Sanitarium, “named to honor
the community’s foremost physician,”
opened on July 26, 1905, on North
Beach, just 100 yards from the bay.
Father Jaillet became the hospital’s first
chaplain, and Dr. Spohn’s associate,
Dr. George Heaney, admitted its first
❖ Sisters of the Incarnate Word made the trip from
San Antonio by buggy.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
patient. A first annex was erected in 1906
and a second, with a chapel, in 1911.
Dr. Spohn was known for providing
medical care to all who needed it, regardless
of their financial status, and the policy
continued after his death on May 5, 1913,
in Corpus Christi. By 1915 there was never
an empty bed—1,554 patients came, with
more than half unable to pay for their
treatment. That year fourteen Sisters were
working in the sanitarium, with Mother
Mary George Daly as administrator.
In 1891 D. Mahoney had built a fine
North Beach home, which was later rented
by boxer Bob Fitzsimmons, who came
to Corpus Christi in 1895 to train for a
fight with Gentleman Jim Corbett. Later
it would be used as the Shell Beach
Sanitarium operated by Dr. W. E. Carruth.
On April 7, 1918, the War Department
opened U.S. General Hospital No. 15 in
the Beach Hotel to serve as a convalescent
facility. Less than a year later, on February
28, 1919, it closed, and all patients were
transferred to Camp Travis, Texas.
8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Late in 1918 the flu pandemic hit
Corpus Christi. On October 26 there
were 475 people in the city with the flu,
and there had been 21 deaths in two
weeks. Many normal activities were suspended.
People were advised to avoid
crowds, to refrain from spitting in public
places, and to avoid using the common
towel. The city council closed movie theaters
and public dances. Schools closed,
as did poolrooms, domino parlors, and
soda fountains. Restaurants were required
to move tables at least five feet apart in
order to stay open. The Red Cross gave
out white gauze masks for workers, and a
soup kitchen at Central High School fed
those too weak to cook for themselves.
On November 11 World War I came to an
end and, a few days later, the flu epidemic
subsided, and life returned to normal.
Almost a year later a terrible hurricane
hit the city. Its wind speed was only 112
miles per hour, but it pushed a fourteenfoot
wall of water in front of it. Ships at
sea had sent reports, but the citizens of
Corpus Christi were not alarmed. In 1916
a storm had caused minimal damage
to the city. But 1919 was different. On
September 14 the storm struck, crushing
docks, houses, and buildings below the
bluff. Dr. Carruth and his family were at
his sanitarium when the water suddenly
❖ Patriotic parades greeted the end of the
‘Great War.’
PHOTOGRAPH BY DOC MCGREGOR, CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ Dr. Spohn and passenger in his Cadillac.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 9

❖ Spohn Sanitarium on “North Beach”.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ Shell Beach Sanitarium was operated by Dr. W. E. Carruth.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
1 0 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

egan to rise. They had lost hope when a
24-foot sailboat washed over the fence
and into their yard. Thirteen people,
including the Carruths, boarded the boat
as his building collapsed. Fortunately,
they found four buckets, enabling them
to bail water until the boat landed on the
south shore of Nueces Bay. Carruth was
convinced that the boat came from God.
At Spohn Sanitarium twelve patients,
the Sisters, the chaplain, eight employees,
and their relatives crowded into the
chapel. The waters of Corpus Christi Bay
and Nueces Bay met, and the building
began to rock. Father Jaillet recited the
Rosary constantly. About six o’clock the
north wing was swept away. Sister Theis,
nurse Theresa Reece, and two patients
drowned in the raging waters. While the
official death toll of the storm was set at
284, estimates ranged as high as 600.
After the hurricane North Beach was
decimated. Spohn Sanitarium was a
water-soaked shell. Once again the
Kenedys and Klebergs were on hand with
support. John G. Kenedy and his wife
gave up their home for use by the Sisters
and their patients. Alice Kleberg began
fund-raising for a new facility, and her
mother gave five acres of land, near the
bay and above the bluff, for a new hospital.
The building was established at Ayers
and Third streets with fifty beds on three
floors. The $175,000 facility was blessed
by the Most Reverend E. Ledvina on
August 25, 1923. That same year it
acquired a Class A rating from the
American College of Surgeons and a rating
as one of the best hospitals in Texas.
And, like his father, Dr. Harry G. Heaney
admitted the first patient and performed
the first operation there.
❖ Spohn Sanitarium after the 1919 hurricane.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ Henrietta King gave land for a new hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ John G. Kenedy and his wife let their home be used by the Sisters after the storm.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
❖ The new Spohn Hospital above the bluff.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 1 1

❖ In the early 1940s Sister Adelaide checks the babies in the Spohn Hospital nursery.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C H A P T E R 3
THE CITY GROWS
In spite of the death and destruction
the hurricane caused, it could be considered
a blessing in disguise. The storm
illustrated the need for a protected deepwater
port in the central Gulf of Mexico
and led to the decision to locate it at
Corpus Christi. The port and the subsequent
discovery of oil in the area would
change Corpus Christi from a sleepy fishing
village to a major city. This in turn
would mean an increased number of
medical facilities for its citizens.
In 1924 Dr. George Wyche was society
president, and in 1964 he reminisced
about the earlier times. He said that at
that time “there was friction among the
doctors here—things were not as they are
now. When I came here in 1923, the society
had not met in many moons, and
some of the doctors were wearing sixshooters
on their hips. There were only
fifteen or twenty of us then. So I got the
boys together, gave them a little pep
talk—and they agreed to park their
artillery at the front desk.”
All was not peaceful in the city, however.
Political rivalries and the controversial
circumstances of the 1920s led to a
tragedy that brought about the establishment
of another hospital.
By the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan had
made a resurgence in the South, including
South Texas, but in Nueces County
race was not the issue. The group was
formed in opposition to Judge Walter
Timon, the county’s political boss.
Because Timon and many of his supporters
were Catholic and the Klansmen
Protestant, some felt that there were
religious facets to the conflict, but others
dismissed that aspect. Frank C. Allen, Jr.,
whose father, along with Frank Roberts,
was among the Klan leaders, considered it
purely political.
On October 14, 1922, Sheriff Frank
Robinson and a deputy, Joe Acebo, fatally
shot Roberts, a prominent real estate dealer.
The two were later acquitted of all
charges, but the Klan built the Fred
Roberts Memorial Hospital as a memorial
to its slain member.
1 2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Regardless of the circumstances of its
founding, the hospital was badly needed.
Spohn Sanitarium could not accommodate
all those who needed care. In August
1924 an emergency hospital was opened
in the residence of Mrs. Ed R. Sizer, Jr.,
at 507 N. Tancahua. She planned to
take in a few private patients, but even
her large home was inadequate. When the
Fred Roberts Hospital opened on October
31, 1928, Mrs. Sizer closed her doors
and became the hospital’s superintendent.
By 1929 it had a staff of twenty doctors
and seventeen nurses and a laboratory
under the direction of Dr. J. V. Blair.
In 1928 a recently married doctor,
C. P. Jasperson, and his nurse wife were
looking for a place to open his practice.
A veteran of World War I, Dr. Jasperson had
grown up and been educated in the
Midwest but had started a pediatric clinic
at The Lihue Hospital on the island of
Kauai, Hawaii, before his marriage. Perhaps
it was the Hawaiian climate that encouraged
the couple to seek a warm climate, and
after visiting Houston, San Antonio, and
Edinburg, Texas, he decided on Corpus
Christi and opened his office in room 509 of
the new Nixon Building on Leopard Street.
The city’s population was 25,000.
Medical Society and served as its president
in 1941. In 1940 he became president
of the Texas State Pediatric Society.
At some times, in those days, the
unemployment rate was 25 percent, and
the doctor often received garden produce,
shrimp, or oysters instead of cash
payment for his services.
Dr. McIver Furman was president of
the medical society in 1934. He recalled
going on one cold winter morning to
North Beach, where a woman in labor
was desperately ill. He put her in his car
and raced toward Spohn Hospital but did
not make it. While the baby was delivered
in his car, he pressed on the horn, hoping
to attract enough attention to get some
help. Instead he was scolded for being
so noisy. The next time he got such a call,
he called for a taxi for the patient.
❖ Fred Roberts Hospital resulted from a feud.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DOC MCGREGOR, CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
The Medical-Professional Hospital,
located on the top floor of the Medical-
Professional Building, also opened in the
1920s. Instead of having a regular staff, it
was open to all practicing physicians in
the local area.
As Spohn Sanitarium’s focus changed
from long-term care to treatment of the
critically ill, in 1930 the name was
changed to Spohn Hospital. Because there
was no formal nursing program in South
Texas, the Sisters established the Spohn
School of Nursing in 1926. The nurses
lived in the hospital building for two
years, but Dr. Henry Redmond, first dean
of the school, realized that the facilities
were inadequate and offered his old home
on Broadway, which was transferred to the
hospital grounds. Six nurses graduated in
1930. However, by 1935 the hospital was
so crowded that the school was closed.
Other local doctors gave the new specialist
little or no consideration. At that
time family practitioners said pediatricians
weren’t needed. “We take care of the
babies,” they said.
This changed, however, when the
daughter of a fishing guide—a man who
later helped President Franklin Roosevelt
catch some tarpon—became critically ill.
The family doctor said he had done all
he could for her. Friends recommended
the family try this new “baby doctor.”
Dr. Jasperson administered parenteral fluids,
and the child rapidly recovered. From
that time on he had a large, loyal practice.
He was a solo practitioner, on call twentyfour
hours a day for forty years.
Dr. Jasperson helped organize and
served as first president of the Corpus
Christi Pediatric Society. He also held
many offices in the Nueces County
❖ Early-day pediatrician Dr. Charles
Lewis Concklin.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
A second “baby doctor,” Dr. Joseph
McBride Sloan, came to town in 1934,
and, in 1937, Dr. Charles Lewis Concklin
became the third. Because his wife had a
mitral valve disorder from rheumatic
fever, doctors recommended that they
locate in a southern region—Florida,
Texas, or California. He opened an office
on the second floor of the Medical
Professional Building on Chaparral Street.
Family doctors in those days were still
reluctant to refer their “little ones” to the
specialists, and he and Dr. Sloan endured
C h a p t e r 3 ✦ 1 3

❖ Campfire Girls weighing a ‘baby’ at the Girls Friendly Clinic.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DOC MCGREGOR, CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
a difficult financial situation for a couple
of years. “Joe told me it was two years
before he earned enough to meet his
expenses,” Dr. Concklin said.
The doctors volunteered their services
to treat patients at the Girls’ Friendly
Clinic, created by the Episcopal Church
women. Alice Overton kept the charts
there and served as receptionist and nurse.
In 1936 Dr. Furman suggested that a
“City-County Health Unit” be formed. The
State of Texas had agreed to pay half the
expense, estimated at $20,000, for two fulltime
doctors trained in public health work,
a sanitary engineer, and a clerk. The funds
were also to provide for drugs, a health
education campaign, and a venereal disease
campaign. The Medical Society endorsed
the plan, and the unit was established.
The next year Spohn Hospital opened
a fifty-room addition, and, in 1938,
Mrs. Sam E. Wilson, wife of a prominent
oilman, founded the Crippled Children’s
Hospital Medical Center, Inc., to treat
victims of cerebral palsy. The first center
of its type in the United States, it was the
first hospital in Nueces County to be
approved by the American Medical
Association. The medical director was
Dr. K. J. Kemp. In 1942 the Ada Wilson
School was added, because Mrs. Wilson
wanted the children to make academic as
well as physical progress. All treatment
was outpatient until 1947, when inpatient
facilities were added.
Two California physicians, Dr. James
M. Tyre, Sr., and Dr. Boyd Henry, came to
Corpus Christi in 1939 and opened a 10-
bed facility known as the B. D. Henry
Clinic and located at 1202 Third. Later a
group of osteopaths reorganized it as the
Corpus Christi Osteopathic Hospital and
the five doctors who made up the board
❖ Ada Wilson.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ Left to right: Dr. McIver Furman, Mrs. Ada Wilson, and architect Richard S. Colley, at the groundbreaking of
the Ada Wilson Hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
1 4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

donated their stock and made it a nonprofit
institution. The site became inadequate
and in 1962 patients were moved
into a new 48-bed facility at 1502 Tarlton.
George O’Byrne became the fourth
pediatrician in town when he arrived
in 1940. Dr. Edwin Danford, another
pediatrician, also arrived in Corpus
Christi in 1940. He had been inspired
to become a doctor because of a brother
who had a clubfoot, and he also overcame
physical problems. He had spent
a year and a half in a tuberculosis sanitarium
and also suffered from diabetes.
In 1946 Dr. Danford was joined by
Dr. Meyer Kurzner, who had trained with
him at the University of Cincinnati.
In 1940, when Dr. E. T. Bickley was
president of the Medical Society, a prenatal
clinic and a well-baby clinic were
established. “We doctors rarely saw a well
baby before that,” Dr. Concklin said.
“And we set up the prenatal clinic in
order to see patients during the first
months of pregnancy. Rarely did such a
patient come in for examinations and care
until she was near to term. Usually, her
husband came in, paid $5 down, and
promised $35 more when the baby was
delivered. Midwives were doing a thriving
business—and we were starving. The
mortality rate was high.”
❖ Ada Wilson Rehabilitation Hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ Kathy Hall, left, occupational therapist assistant supervisor, and Jackie Gave, therapist, help visitor Jim Russell
see what a young patient experiences.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Until late 1940 all specimens for
pathologic examination were sent to
Terrell Laboratory in Fort Worth. At that
time Dr. John Pilcher arrived and began
to serve all the hospitals in the area from
an office in the Medical Professional
Building. Dr. Concklin said of his office
in the same building, on the side away
from the prevailing southeast winds,
“It had only one good feature. It was next
to Dr. Pilcher’s Laboratory.”
Eventually other doctors started referring
other patients to the pediatricians.
Dr. Concklin told Dr. Gordon Heaney
that he would “take care of any rugrats he
didn’t want. I had a sizable practice right
away.” Even so, he said, “it took two years
for me to be able to pay my office bills,
though, and I never did make any money
because I kept taking care of kids whose
parents couldn’t pay. Didn’t even own my
own home till I was 68.”
He said he treated children from birth
to age 16, but they didn’t want to leave
his care.
“I didn’t deliver babies but caught
them on the second bounce,” he said.
“I loved every one of them.”
In the 1940s tuberculosis was still
a major health threat. On March 28,
1943, Judge Browning formally presented
the key to Hilltop Hospital, the
Tuberculosis Hospital of Nueces County,
C h a p t e r 3 ✦ 1 5

❖ The Tuberculosis Hospital under construction.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ In an emergency beds were set up in the hall.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
to Dr. C. A. Hearne, president of the
Nueces County Tuberculosis Association.
At that time the hospital consisted of a
three-room house and four one-room
buildings, all connected by a wide service
porch where more beds could be set up
in an emergency. The first patient was
admitted in April. Mrs. D. D. Blades was
nurse-housekeeper-director, Dr. McIver
Furman donated his time as medical
director, and Dr. L. M. Garrett took care
of X-ray treatments.
1 6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ After the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack new enlistees lined up on Starr Street in downtown Corpus Christi.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
C H A P T E R 4
DOCTORS AT WAR
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941, doctors, like other
Americans, rallied in defense of the
country. Seventy-five physicians on the
Spohn Hospital staff were called into the
military. Dr. Concklin was one of them.
“I hitchhiked to San Antonio to join
up, then got a ride back with a doctor
friend who saw me standing by the
side of the road,” he said in a 2010
interview. The friend, a Dr. Priday, in a
big Packard “gave me the ride of my life”
back to Corpus Christi. “I was glad to get
out of the car.”
Asked by the military what he wanted
to do, he said, “Fly,” but an examination
in Victoria showed that he was colorblind.
Flying was out, but he was told
C h a p t e r 4 ✦ 1 7

❖ Ships like this braved German U-boats to enter
the Port of Corpus Christi during the war.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ As medical officer on a destroyer, Dr. J. Gordon Bryson treated victims of frozen Aleutian warfare.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.
“The Air Force needs you.” He became a
flight surgeon after turning his practice,
including his records and his office, over
to Dr. Danford. He was sent to Europe,
stationed first in Cornwall, England, then
at Orly Airport at Paris. Later he was sent
to Cherbourg, which he called a “dismal,
boring place.” As a flight surgeon, his job
was to check pilots to make sure they were
fit to fly. He became friends with some, but
those he had to “crash” became enemies.
On one memorable occasion he was
sent on a flight to Africa to get “real eggs
and whiskey.” He was selected to make
the trip because he was trustworthy. In
Marrakech, Morocco, he found malaria,
relapsing fever, and amoebic dysentery,
but he bought wine, eggs, and oranges.
“Flying back to Land’s End was a hairy
adventure,” he said. They tried to land in
Ireland, but the base was socked in. After
a stop in Prestwick, Scotland, they were
“greeted like heroes in Cornwall.”
After the war Dr. Concklin returned to
San Antonio for release from service at
Fort Sam Houston, where he received
$300 in severance pay. His wife picked
him up and he returned to Corpus Christi.
Dr. Hans Heymann, president of the
Medical Society in 1968, was a Jew born
in Germany. While he was in medical
school in Heidelberg in the 1930s, he
received a letter telling him, “Although
you are a Jew, you will be allowed to
remain in school because your father was
an officer in the Werhmacht.”
Angered, he took as much money as he
could, rolled it in a toothpaste tube, and
hiked over the mountains to Italy. He
completed his medical education there
and, always feisty, left the Nazis a note,
“What you offer as a gift is mine as a right,
and I refuse to accept it.”
His twin sister, Gretel, was left behind in
Germany, but he managed to get her out
when the borders were opened for the 1936
Olympics. During World War II he served
in the U.S, military, making the trip across
Burma into China with General “Vinegar
Joe” Stilwell. It was difficult duty—they
built field hospitals from bamboo and
abandoned them as they moved on.
❖ As a flight surgeon Dr. Charles Lewis Concklin
checked pilots of planes like these.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DR. CHARLES LEWIS CONCKLIN.
As a young lieutenant Dr. J. Gordon
Bryson praised the Navy for its medical
facilities during the war, specifically
blood plasma, sulfa, vitamins, and immunizations.
A native of Bastrop, Texas, and
a 1939 graduate of the University of Texas
Medical branch, he saw extensive service
in the Pacific as Medical Officer on a
destroyer that fought in the battles of the
Coral Sea, Midway, and the Aleutians. In
1943 he related one incident that illustrated
the motto “Bring Them Back Alive.”
In the Aleutians the ship fished a sailor
out of the icy waters. Although the man
1 8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

World War II experiences brought pain
of a different sort—painful nightmares—
to another Corpus Christi medical pioneer,
war hero, and champion of education—Dr.
Foy Moody, for whom Moody
High School was named.
❖ American troops advance shortly after the Battle of the Bulge.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.
was stiff and appeared dead, they began
treatment, including one unit of plasma.
He began to show signs of life, so thirty
minutes later, around 2:00 p.m., they
gave him another unit of plasma. At
6:00 p.m. Dr. Bryson went back to check
on the patient. He was in the galley,
asking for something to eat.
One of the more dramatic medical
events of the war was performed not by a
Corpus Christi doctor but by a young
Navy corpsman who would later have a
long, successful term as a hospital administrator
in the city. He was Wheeler Lipes,
who, as a pharmacist’s mate, performed
an appendectomy on a fellow sailor on
the submarine Seadragon in 1942 under
the South China Sea. The successful
operation was portrayed in the 1943 film
Destination Tokyo, starring Cary Grant
Even doctors on the home front
became victims of the war. Dr. James
Cottingham told the story of the birth
of his younger brother and the problems
of Dr. Blair.
January 19, 1942, was a mandatory
blackout in Corpus Christi because of the
sighting of a German submarine in the
Gulf of Mexico. “My younger brother, Lon
Cottingham, was born that night in Fred
Roberts Hospital,” Dr. Cottingham said.
“The C. C. Caller-Times wrote an article
about Dr. Blair having to drive without
headlights from the C. C. Yacht Club
when my mother went into labor. He ran
off the road, wrecking his car, arriving at
the hospital after my mother delivered.”
Another Corpus Christi doctor, Dr.
H. Gordon Heaney, saw service in North
Africa. In his first action he was rushed
through artillery fire to the Tenth Field
Hospital. He opened his medical supply
trucks and found them filled with French
abortion instruments from World War I.
“There wasn’t an instrument I could
use. All we could do was put pressure
on the wounds and call for a convoy
of ambulances,” he said. “Nobody had
inspected our medical supplies between
the two world wars.”
Dr. Heaney went through North
Africa, Sicily, and Southern France. Later
during his medical career he visited
much of the area on a world tour.
Late in his life he suffered a broken back.
“I was on a half-track once that ran
over a German mine,” he said. “Three
of my men up front suffered broken
backs. I can now sympathize with the
pain they endured.”
❖ Dr. Foy Moody was haunted by his
wartime memories.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Dr. Moody had moved to Corpus
Christi in the 1930s and built the Moody
Clinic but left his practice to join a U.S.
Army surgical team during the war. His
unit was involved in the Battle of the
Bulge. He told of operating eighteen
hours without rest in inadequate facilities
and other wartime horrors. One of his
frequent postwar nightmares was of a
soldier whose wound had destroyed his
right kidney. After surgeons removed the
kidney, they checked to see if his left
kidney was damaged. The young casualty
had no left kidney.
Yet another South Texas doctor served
with distinction in Italy. He returned
home with the rank of major, a Bronze
Star with six battle stars, a lovely Italian
wife, and a daunting set of challenges.
His name—Hector Perez Garcia.
C h a p t e r 4 ✦ 1 9

❖ Dr. Garcia with his wife outside the White House after he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C H A P T E R 5
DR. HECTOR
Hector Perez Garcia was born in
Mexico on January 17, 1914, to Jose and
Faustina Garcia, who fled from the
Mexican Revolution in 1917 and settled
in Mercedes, Texas, in the Rio Grande
Valley. He had lifelong memories of the
guns of the war.
Living conditions for the family were
grim in those Depression days—the
Garcia children picked cotton, packed
oranges, and foraged for fruit discarded
in packing sheds. They also faced prejudice—schools
punished children for
speaking Spanish, and the Texas Rangers
raided their home. They had no medical
care, and Hector’s four-year-old sister,
Dalia, died from burns after falling into a
pit of builders’ lime.
Jose Garcia, a professor who ran a dry
goods store, was determined that his children
would become doctors. “You can
help other people, and you’ll be independent,”
he said. “No one can take a
doctor’s job away.” He sold his life insurance
to pay for his children’s education.
To help pay his expenses, Hector
hitchhiked to San Antonio every summer
to take part in the Civilian Military
Training Corps, which earned him a commission
in the Army. Although in the
1930s Texas medical schools accepted
only one Mexican-American per year,
he earned his medical degree at the
University of Texas at Galveston. Even
as an Army officer he encountered
prejudice. He was asked, “What medical
school did you graduate from? In Spain?
In Mexico? In South America?”
They were surprised, he said, when he
told them the answer.
Although Dr. Garcia returned from the
war a highly decorated hero, he found the
same anti-Hispanic prejudices his family
had faced in earlier years. His first office
was next to the Veterans Administration
office. He had no air-conditioning, no car,
and sometimes took a bus to his patients’
homes to perform home surgeries or
deliveries for a fee of $1 to $3. Many of
his patients were veterans who suffered
from malaria, dysentery, beriberi, or war
injuries. One case in particular involved a
veteran named Jesus Ramos, who was suffering
from stomach pains. He consulted
a physician who sent him to the V. A.
From there he was sent to the Naval Air
Station. A doctor there felt his stomach
and told him to return. He went to the
first doctor, and the entire scenario was
repeated. On his second trip to the base
2 0 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

hospital, he was told he needed a letter
from the Veterans Administration in San
Antonio. Finally he went to Dr. Garcia,
who treated him and pointed out in a
letter to the V. A., “…Mr. Ramos was
suffering from pain. Had it been appendicitis,
he would not be living now.”
On March 26, 1948, Dr. Garcia called a
meeting to address the concerns of
Mexican-American veterans about the discrimination
they still faced. This meeting
developed into the American GI Forum,
the name chosen to emphasize the fact that
the Forum’s participants were American
citizens entitled to their constitutional
rights. At first the organization focused on
veterans’ affairs, but soon other instances
of prejudice turned his and the organization’s
attention to civil rights.
won’t like it.” Dr. Garcia called on the
GI Forum and then Senator Lyndon B.
Johnson, and with their assistance,
Private Longoria became the first
Mexican-American to be buried in
Arlington National Cemetery. The incident
highlighted the treatment of
Mexican-Americans in South Texas and
led to lasting friendship and cooperation
between Dr. Hector and Lyndon Johnson.
While the Longoria incident is probably
the most famous of his battles, he had
notable victories against discrimination in
the medical field in Corpus Christi.
bed into the “Mexican male” ward, but all
beds there were filled. He asked hospital
officials why they didn’t put him in the
“Anglo” ward, where there were two
empty beds. After some discussion this
was done.
In a report of the incident he wrote on
February 9, Dr. Garcia also raised the
question of a Hispanic on the hospital
staff. “At this time,” he wrote, “I mentioned
also the fact that we had been
promised consideration of a Latin member
of the hospital and as yet had not
received any consideration.”
❖ Dr. Garcia relaxes in his office.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ Dr. Hector P. Garcia, physician and founder of
the American GI Forum.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
In the Felix Longoria incident,
Dr. Garcia brought national attention to
these problems. Felix Longoria was a
soldier from Three Rivers, Texas, who had
been killed by a sniper in the Philippines
during World War II. In 1949 his body
was returned home for burial, but The
New York Times reported that his widow
had been refused the services of a Three
Rivers funeral chapel because “the whites
In 1944 Memorial Hospital was
opened by the City of Corpus Christi and
Nueces County as a memorial to World
War dead. It was a nonprofit institution,
financed by its paying patients, with the
balance from public funds, split evenly
between the city and the county. Even
though it was to be a general hospital
with no barriers as to race, creed, age, or
economic status, it maintained all-Anglo
and all-minority wards. In February 1949
Dr. Garcia went to Memorial to treat two
patients. At the hospital he found a
Mexican-American ranch hand, Jose
Samudio, in a bed in a hallway. He was
told that they were trying to get another
At that time discrimination was also
widespread in South Texas school districts.
For example, the Driscoll district
required all students with a Spanish surname
to spend three years in a segregated
first-grade class, regardless of their
ability to speak English. Parents of Linda
Perez refused to let her speak Spanish
at all, but she was still placed in the
segregated class. GI Forum member
James De Anda, later a federal judge,
took the case to court and won,
although, he said, “I had to pay the cost
of depositions out of my own pocket.”
Dr. Garcia was recuperating from an illness,
listening to the radio, when he heard
C h a p t e r 5 ✦ 2 1

His national and international achievements
were phenomenal. President Johnson
appointed him to the National Advisory
Council on Economic Opportunity and
later as alternate U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations, where he gave the first
speech by an American in a language other
than English. In 1972 he was appointed to
the Texas Advisory Committee on Civil
Rights. In 1984 President Ronald Reagan
awarded him the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the highest honor the President
can give a civilian.
❖
Dr. Garcia with President Ronald Reagan in 1983, when the president spoke at the American GI Forum in El Paso.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
school superintendents from Sinton and
Beeville both say that they segregated
Mexican-American students. “I made a
vow to myself,” he said, “that if I fully
recovered my health, I would spend the
rest of my life working on behalf of
my people.”
And he did. His patients in the 1940s
came from Corpus Christi barrios. They
were Mexican-Americans with a median
annual income of $1,134. An average of
209 Mexican-Americans out of 100,000
died of tuberculosis, compared to
31 Anglos. Infant diarrhea accounted for
37 percent of Mexican-American deaths,
compared to 7 percent for Anglos, and
67.2 percent of Mexican-Americans lived
in homes without inside flush toilets. Dr.
Garcia provided medical care for the indigent
and led efforts to obtain indoor plumbing
where it was lacking and to improve
conditions for migrant farm laborers.
❖ The Indigent Clinic at Memorial Medical Center
was named for Dr. Garcia in 1993.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF WILSON WALRAVEN.
His leadership in the civil rights movement
brought him a lengthy list of honors,
both local and national. The main post
office in Corpus Christi is named for him,
and his statue stands in a courtyard at Texas
A&M University-Corpus Christi. In 1993
the once-segregated Memorial Medical
Center named its indigent clinic for him.
❖ Statue of Dr. Garcia stands in a courtyard at
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Dr. Garcia took pride in working
within the system. In 1993, three years
before his death on July 26, 1996, he
told The Corpus Christi Caller-Times, “The
biggest impact that I had was that I never
pushed or favored any demonstrations or
revolt to tear down the system. I always
thought the system would work with us.”
2 2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ Successful tuberculosis treatments meant fewer patients for Hilltop Hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C H A P T E R 6
THE POSTWAR YEARS
As the city continued to grow after
World War II, more medical facilities and
services became available to its citizens.
The Medical-Professional Hospital on
Chaparral ceased operation in 1954
when Franklin Flato and his sons,
Fred and Robert, opened a $5 million
Corpus Christi Medical Center on a
three-acre tract on Morgan Avenue across
from Memorial.
Two privately owned hospitals opened
in the city in the late 1940s. The Ghormly
Clinic, operated by Dr. W. H. Ghormly,
opened in March 1947 in the former Fred
Roberts Hospital Building. It operated
until 1956, when it was converted into
a nursing home. Dr. J. H. Thomas and
Dr. Thomas Spann founded the Thomas-
Spann Clinic and Hospital in 1949.
Writing about Dr. Foy Moody, the 1947
president of the Medical Society, in Coastal
Bend Medicine, September/October 2004,
Dr. John M. Etheridge described those
postwar years as “the Golden Age of
Medicine, before Medicare and after the
discovery of penicillin…malpractice insurance
cost less than $100 a year; office visits
were $3; OB care and delivery were $90
for a female [infant] and $100 for a male,
because of circumcision; an appendectomy
was $150; and a hysterectomy $250.”
By 1948 the facilities at Hilltop, the
tuberculosis hospital, increased from
thirteen to twenty-four beds, and in the
spring of that year Hilltop Hospital
became a Nueces County institution,
operating under a six-man board. Dr.
Walter C. Brown donated his time as
medical director. Soon after that, the
County Commissioners approved the use
of streptomycin, and it and other new
drugs were used to treat the patients.
By the 1950s the hospital was a fireproof
building with 104 beds, where
patients could remain for a full course of
treatment. In 1957 the board established a
dental care program for indigent patients.
But the success of the new tuberculosis
treatments meant a decrease in the number
of patients, and this lessened need, along
with a lack of financing, led to the closing
of Hilltop. The Commissioners Court
deeded ten acres of its grounds to the
Nueces Hospital District to allow negotiations
to lease the property to the Nueces
County Mental Health-Mental Retardation
Center for use as a Mental Health Center.
C h a p t e r 6 ✦ 2 3

Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s
a terrifying epidemic of poliomyelitis
struck the country. Around the end of
World War II, the twenty-three-year
national average number of cases was
6,000. A notable earlier victim of the disease,
then known primarily as infantile
paralysis, was future President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, left with paralyzed legs in
1921, when he was thirty-nine years old.
the bulbar type, which left them unable
to breathe. In 1946 Memorial Hospital
acquired two iron lungs, huge, tank-like
machines that helped bulbar patients
with respiration.
In 1948 a meeting was caused concerning
prevention of the dread disease. The
Medical Society went on record as feeling
that attendance “at clean, well-supervised
camps would not be dangerous, nor in the
use of swimming pools with chlorinated
water or at the beaches unless the City
Health Department found the water to
be contaminated. It was announced that
tonsillectomies would not be done at the
present time, and the extraction of teeth
would be postponed as long as possible.”
epidemic zone, and trash filled city garbage
dumps in response to a cleanup order.
By 1954 Dr. Jonas Salk had developed
his polio vaccine. Dr. Hugh Kennedy,
Medical Society president that year,
said, “All the problems had been solved,
everybody loved everybody else, and
Dr. Salk solved the polio problem. We all
turned out for three all-day sessions at
Exposition Hall and gave Salk vaccine to
thousands. It lasted very well.”
❖ Dr. Franklin Yeager was president of the
Nueces County Medical Society in 1952 during the
polio epidemic.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ Dr. Damon C. Bernwanger. His office was one of
the first in town to use computerized billing.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
In the early 1940s the number of cases
started to grow, and, by 1952, the national
figure had soared to 57,879, with 3,145
deaths. In 1943 Texas was the hardest hit
state in the nation, although the number
of cases in the state declined the next
year. The situation was complicated by
the fact that no one knew then how the
disease was spread.
Researchers discovered that there were
three different types of the virus, and that
immunity to one did not give protection
against the others. Some patients had
no paralysis, in others the limbs were
affected, and still others suffered from
❖ Dr. W. R. Metzger.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
The epidemics continued, and, in 1952,
Dr. Franklin Yeager, who was president
of both the Texas Medical Association and
the local Medical Society that year, said,
“That summer polio was so prevalent all
hospitals were taxed to capacity. We had to
arrange for care of polio patients in homes.”
At one time the Texas State Militia
stopped traffic coming from San Antonio to
warn people that they were entering an
In 1962, while Dr. Jack McKemie was
president, a mass immunization program
with the Sabin oral vaccine was held,
underwritten by the Medical Society at
a cost of $90,000. However, contributions
covered it. There were only 910
cases nationwide that year, and the
numbers continued to drop, reaching
zero in 1987.
A second pathologist, Dr. Joseph
Pasternak, arrived in town in 1954. He
became the pathologist for Spohn
Hospital, while Dr. Pilcher served at
Memorial, and a rivalry developed
between them.
2 4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Dr. Concklin mentioned several other
prominent physicians of this period. He
described Dr. Jerome Nast as a “wonderful
doctor.” Dr. Joseph Oshman was a rival
pediatrician, and Dr. Metzger was the city
doctor. Others included surgeons Dr. O. S.
Koepsel and Dr. Dutch Rogers, Dr. Kleberg
Eckhardt, and Dr. Ralph V. St. John.
At this time, Dr. Concklin said, most
doctors smoked—but he went to the fire
escape to do it. He smoked Fatima-rich
Turkish tobacco. “It was hard,” he said,
“but I gave it up.”
The early 1950s saw a notable increase
in the number of local pediatricians. Dr.
Helen Woods, who had received her M.D.
degree at Yale University, became the first
female to join the ranks. After she and her
husband, Dr. Richard Woods, moved to
Corpus Christi from Kingsville, she shared
offices with Drs. Concklin, Jack McKemie,
and George Flood. Dr. Richard Woods
died prematurely from a hepatitis virus
he contracted treating gunshot victims at
Memorial Hospital. Dr. Mary McCaskey, a
member of the first class to graduate from
Baylor Medical School in Houston, also
came that year, joining Dr. George O’Byrne.
Another married couple, both pediatricians,
were Drs. Norman and Hannah
Woody. “They came to my office and asked
if there would be room for them in
Corpus,” Dr. Concklin said. “I told them to
come on…they were top-notch pediatricians”
After Dr. Norman Woody developed
medical problems, they both accepted
teaching positions at Tulane University.
In the centennial edition of Coastal
Bend Medicine Dr. Damon C. Bernwanger,
❖ A polio patient in an iron lung is loaded onto a large truck to be moved.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY, THE JOHN FRED’K “DOC” MCGREGOR COLLECTION.
C h a p t e r 6 ✦ 2 5

president of the Medical Society in 1952,
cited major changes in economics of
medical practice that began around 1954.
Before that, he said, few patients had
medical insurance and those that did had
to fill out their own forms. He pointed to
changes in the economy. At that time
office visits were $4.00, an uncomplicated
delivery was $40.00—and his liability
insurance cost him just $75.00 per year.
His office was one of the first in town
to use computerized billing.
“The only problem,” he wrote, “was
that when the computer broke down
(which was frequently, if I remember correctly)
there were no engineers in Corpus
Christi and they would have to wait for
one from San Antonio to come down. As
you can imagine, this created a tremendous
delay in our billing process.”
There were also important achievements
during this period. Under the
direction of the Nueces County Pediatric
Society, the Medical Society established a
Poison Control Center in 1958, and in
1960 the Society established a Medical
Scholarship Fund. The first recipient of
the $1,000 was Kirby Barker.
In early 1961 another pathologist,
Dr. Joe A. Lewis, joined Dr. Pasternak.
Dr. Francis Parks and Dr. James Scherer
joined Dr. Pilcher at Memorial. Dr. Lewis
also became the original medical examiner
for Nueces County.
As the Civil Rights Movement grew, so
did diversity on the Corpus Christi medical
scene. In 1963 Dr. Henry J. Williams
became the first Black physician admitted
into the Society. He was also a civil rights
leader and chairman of the NAACP.
Hispanic and other minority doctors
became accepted by their colleagues and
patients alike, although some said they
did not receive the referrals that other
doctors received.
Most of the doctors in town then were
general practitioners, and specialists were
few. There were neither cardiologists nor
chest specialists in Corpus Christi when
Dr. Herbert Madalin arrived in 1961.
Dr. Madalin was a premed student at the
University of Michigan, joined the Navy
during World War II, and was in boot
camp when the war ended. His service
continued, and he was stationed for a
while at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station.
After his discharge he finished his premed
and medical school studies at Michigan.
He also trained at the Ford Hospital in
Detroit, the University of Texas Medical
School in Galveston, and at the Mayo
Clinic, where he witnessed the first
open-heart surgery. He also spent nine
months in San Antonio in a UT-Galveston
program at the Tuberculosis Hospital,
❖ As a chest specialist, Dr. Herbert Madalin tried
to ban smoking at Society meetings.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
He and his wife, Sally, who had been a
public health nurse in Detroit, looked at
locations in Florida and California but
decided to open a practice in Corpus
Christi. They had a rude welcome to the
city—a dog bit their daughter on the day
they arrived.
He practiced solo for ten years with
his wife as his office nurse during a
period when Memorial Hospital did not
pay doctors. Later Dr. Bill Cox became
his partner and they were joined by
Dr. John Arringdale, Dr. Fred Thomas,
and Dr. Sergio Tavares.
At that time even hospitals had cigarette
machines. As a chest specialist,
Dr. Madalin was strongly opposed to
smoking. His wife said, “He made me
quit,” and he tried unsuccessfully to
ban smoking at society meetings. The
Madalins did not permit smoking in their
home, and one time when he held an
officers’ meeting there, one doctor
became so irate at the rule that he would
not stay. The rule had another repercussion.
Dr. Madalin’s surgical practice
depended on referrals, and one physician
who smoked vowed that he would never
refer a patient to the nonsmoking
doctor—and he didn’t.
Dr. E. Jackson Giles, who was born in
Corpus Christi and served as a major in
the Army Medical Corps during World
War II, was an oncologist who believed
that cigarettes could cause cancer.
However, he thought he could not catch
the disease—he smoked only cigars and
did not inhale. One day in 1973, after he
bragged at a meeting in Houston that he
was probably immune to the disease,
doctors at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
discovered that he was not. He underwent
treatment and lived for a good
many more years.
After his retirement Dr. Lewis
Concklin asked another pediatrician,
Dr. Robert Michael “Mike” Dulaney, to
practice in Corpus Christi. In 1967,
after finishing his second residency,
Dr. Dulaney, his wife, Sue, and two
toddlers drove straight from Ohio.
“When we came over that Harbor Bridge,
I told Sue, ‘Oh, this has got to be the
place,’” he said.
The young doctor had a frightening
experience during his first year here. On
a foggy night he flew by emergency
helicopter to Bay City to treat a newborn
girl in respiratory distress. “Coming in
on that helicopter without being able to
see the ground about scared me to
death,” he said. “But that little girl grew
up and later brought me her baby.”
2 6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ At one time the Naval Hospital was comprised of sixty-seven buildings.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C H A P T E R 7
THE NAVY AND THE CITY
In addition to blackouts and reports
of German submarines in the Gulf of
Mexico, a major sign of World War II in
Corpus Christi was the influx of sailors,
Navy officers, and cadets from the new
Naval Air Station, training site for a large
number of heroic Navy pilots, including
a future president, George H. W. Bush.
The NAS Hospital was commissioned
aboard the station July 1, 1941, although
the first patients had arrived in May. The
hospital opened with 420 beds planned
for an “ultimate personnel” of 12,000. It
was made up of 67 buildings on 65.8
acres. At an anniversary celebration twenty-five
years later, Captain C. O. Williams,
stationed in the city in 1941, recalled the
hospital construction: “It was just a great
big pile of sand.”
Captain W. C. Mann was the first commanding
officer, and the medical staff
was composed of doctors from the Naval
Reserve. Later commanders included
Captain Jerry T. Miser, who had survived
the Pearl Harbor attack and served
eighteen months aboard the cruiser
USS Houston during World War II,
Captain Luther C. Bell, who served in
Europe, at Sicily and Normandy, supervising
the evacuation of the wounded,
and Captain Johnny Young, a hospital
corpsman on a rest and recreation trip
from Midway Island on that December 7.
He served with Marines in the invasion of
Guadalcanal, winning a Silver Star for
running through falling bombs to answer
wounded men’s calls for “Doc.” He was
wounded himself. Later he became a
chief petty officer, and he was commissioned
in 1952.
The hospital would have connections
with later wars. During the Korean War,
the hospital treated returning POWs. The
first to arrive, in 1953, was twenty-yearold
Thomas H. Waddell of Fort Worth.
But other types of patients would
also be served. In October of that year,
the obstetrics department was booming,
with 122 births recorded.
The hospital opened a blood bank in
1959. Captain Miser, hospital commander
at the time, said, “We are quite proud
of our blood bank, which in addition to
our own use, supplied more than 300
pints of whole blood to civilian hospitals
in the community.”
By 1969 the hospital was the Navy
Regional Medical Center, a self-contained
command separate from NAS and under
the Military Command of the Bureau of
Medicine and Surgery. The late 1960s
brought challenges. By November 1969
the hospital had treated 2,000 Vietnam
War veterans. Most came from Texas or
nearby states—Oklahoma, New Mexico,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and
Missouri. Hurricane Celia, on August 3,
1970, left the hospital without water and
other utilities. Patients were flown to
Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio.
Also during the 1960s efforts began to
replace the facility. After months of delays
caused by a freeze on military construction,
on December 7, 1969, President Lyndon B.
Johnson signed an appropriations bill that
included $8 million for the new hospital. A
year later Congress appropriated another
$1.9 million, and U.S. Representative John
Young broke ground on May 21, 1971, for
a 6-story, 195-bed hospital. While it had
been scheduled for completion in April
1973, it was March 22, 1974, when Young
again spoke, dedicating the new building to
“peace and justice.”
C h a p t e r 7 ✦ 2 7

❖ Cattle graze at the original site of the Naval Hospital in Corpus Christi.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
It consolidated all medical and dental
facilities in one location. Captain James E.
Turner, hospital commander, called the
new facility “one of the most dramatic
changes in medical care the Navy has seen
in years.” It replaced 30-patient wards
with one-, two-, or four-patient rooms.
The staff was made up of 240 personnel—
including 31 medical officers, 60 nurses,
7 dentists, and 120 corpsmen.
By 1977, however, the hospital had
new problems. The military suffered
from a lack of doctors, who would have
more freedom and higher pay in civilian
life. In June 1978 the hospital dropped
several specialties, including obstetrics
and gynecology; ophthalmology; orthopedic
surgery; and eye, ear, nose and
throat care. By this time some military
dependents were making use of Medicare
and Champus—the Civilian Health
and Medical Program of the Uniformed
❖ An early view of the Naval Hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Services. In 1983 the facility was
renamed “Naval Hospital” under command
of the Southeast Region, one of
six regions, with headquarters in
Jacksonville, Florida.
Traditionally the Navy doctors and
the Nueces County Medical Society
doctors held a joint meeting, Because
there was no surgeon at the hospital,
the emergency room was closed on
November 20, 1986. The result was
cooperation between Navy officials and
Memorial Medical Center.
“As the regional trauma center, we’re
prepared for anything,” Wheeler Lipes,
the former Navy corpsman who had
become Memorial’s director, said. The
Naval Hospital emergency room reopened
on February 6, 1987, with a new surgeon
and six civilian doctors to care for
dependents. In May 1988 more civilian
doctors were employed.
The threat of Hurricane Dolly in the
Gulf of Mexico in July 1988 brought
major storm preparations to NAS and
NAS Kingsville, but neither suffered
major damage.
A drive to close inpatient facilities
and turn the hospital into a clinic began
in the fall of 1990, although 1,901
inpatients were treated there that year.
One factor that led to the defeat of this
idea was the construction of Naval
Station Ingleside as a minesweeper base.
Another was a drive by retired Navy CPO
W. B. “Red” Stanton and the Committee
for the Preservation of the Naval
Hospital. After 30,000 letters opposed
the plan, it was dropped.
“I think this is the icing on the cake to
keeping the hospital here,” Stanton said.
Captain Richard Gutshall, hospital
commander, said, “It’s also a victory for
Corpus Christi, since it does have an
impact on the whole community.”
Over the years the hospital won numerous
awards, including the Meritorious
Unit Commendation for outstanding
service from October 1, 1995, to May 30,
1998, and three Gold Star Awards, in
2005, 2006, and 2007, for Excellence in
Health Promotion. The Command was also
recognized at a Military Health System
Conference for its Outstanding Pharmacy
Operation and Community Service.
2 8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Community involvement came to the
forefront again in 2007, when the NHCC
emergency response team joined city and
county medical professionals November
13, in an annual region wide disaster drill.
The simulation called for an invented
tanker truck and tourist bus collision at a
congested business intersection on the
city’s south side. Civilian first responders
dispensed nearly a hundred staged disaster
victims to over a dozen hospitals in
four surrounding counties.
❖ Four-patent rooms replaced thirty-bed wards.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ A new six-story hospital under construction in the 1970s.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ The new Naval Hospital was completed in March 1974.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 7 ✦ 2 9

❖ As Myrtle Thompson, with her one-year-old daughter, Katie, makes an appointment with Hospital Corpsman
3rd Class Rebecca Proffitt, Corpsmen Brian Skolnik and Todd Dombrosky work at the station.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ Naval personnel manned the hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Naval hospital emergency personnel
quickly deployed from the base and linked
with Kindred Hospital staff on their property
to shape a cordoned decontamination
and triage zone conveniently located less
than a quarter mile from the mishap site.
Kindred’s Disaster Coordinator, Hector
Bernal, and NHCC Disaster Preparedness
Officer Chief Hull Technician (SW) Fred
Thomas had worked for four months planning
their respective scenario roles in the
mock catastrophe.
“Things progressed very well!” Thomas
observed. “Besides getting ‘hands on’
experience with our civilian counterparts,
we had a chance to smooth out some
minor communication wrinkles that
occurred during the drill, most of them
military-civilian terminology differences.”
Earlier that year, on September 22, the
command fielded four tables in the display
arena of the Corpus Christi American Bank
Center in support of the 2007 Veterans
Summit, hosted by Congressman Solomon
Ortiz and the City of Corpus Christi.
At that time the clinic oversaw three
Branch Health Clinics, located in
Kingsville, Ingleside, and Fort Worth,
and the Navy Detachment at Brooke
Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
Because a number of injured Marines and
sailors required services at the Medical
Centers in San Antonio, the clinic maintained
the Navy Liaison Office at BAMC
to support ongoing needs. The Ingleside
clinic was closed in April 2010, when the
Mine Warfare Base there was closed.
The role of the hospital changed in
1997. Arrangements were made with the
Spohn Hospital System for inpatient care
in the civilian hospitals, and NHCC
became an outpatient ambulatory care
center. On February 14, 2008, the name
was changed from Naval Hospital Corpus
Christi to Naval Health Clinic Corpus
Christi. At the name-change ceremony
Captain R. B. Sorenson, commanding
officer of the facility from May 2007, said
“I look forward to continuing our present
collaboration with inpatient facilities in
the region.”
3 0 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ The Driscoll Foundation Children’s Hospital opened in 1953.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
C H A P T E R 8
FOR THE CHILDREN
Destiny played a role in another major
chapter of Corpus Christi medicine.
The story began in 1835, when Daniel
O’Driscoll of the U.S. Army came to
Texas to fight in the revolution against
Mexico. He received land grants for
his service at the Battle of San Jacinto
and became a prominent rancher, with
two sons, Robert and Jeremiah. The sons
dropped the O from the name, and
Robert’s daughter, Clara, and her brother,
Robert, Jr., inherited a fortune from the
family’s ranching interests and from oil
and gas discovered on the land.
Although Clara is known to history as
the “Savior of the Alamo” for advancing
money to save the shrine when it was
about to be sold, the most meaningful
part of her legacy is probably Driscoll
Children’s Hospital, which opened in
February 1953 on South Alameda in
Corpus Christi. Robert Driscoll, Jr., died in
1929, and Clara died in 1945. A provision
in her will said “It has always been my
wish that the estate created by my father,
Robert Driscoll, and my mother, Julia
Driscoll, and my brother, Robert Driscoll,
Jr., and me be used after my death for the
amelioration of the conditions of those
Texans, and particularly those of South
Texas, who may need aid…I so direct my
trustees…to create an endowment from
the residue of my estate to be known as the
Robert Driscoll and Julia Driscoll and
Robert Driscoll, Jr., Foundation, the purpose
of which shall be to provide funds for
the construction, equipment, and operation
of a free clinic and hospital for crippled,
maimed and diseased children.” In
1950 the Driscoll Foundation received a
vote of confidence regarding the establishment
of the hospital, and it opened in
February 1953 on South Alameda as the
Driscoll Foundation Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Joseph M. Sloan was appointed
the hospital’s first director. He had been
stationed at Corpus Christie’s Naval Air
Station and served as medical officer
aboard an attack transport in the Pacific
during World War II. After his discharge
in 1946, he visited his father in the Rio
Grande Valley and decided to settle in
Corpus Christi.
While planning for the hospital was
under way, Dr. McIver Furman who had
been Clara Driscoll’s doctor, called a
meeting of pediatricians to gather ideas.
Dr. Lewis Concklin drew plans for a circular
building in which all rooms could
be seen from a central nursing station.
“Architects said it would be too ugly,”
Dr. Concklin said, “but Scott and White
later used such a circular plan.”
C h a p t e r 8 ✦ 3 1

❖ Robert Driscoll, Sr., accumulated a fortune
through ranching and oil and gas interests.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
Under the provisions of the will, the
hospital was to be for indigents only.
That didn’t last. Trustees went to court,
and, in 1970, hospital facilities were
opened to all children, regardless of
financial status.
❖ Clara Driscoll left her estate to “provide funds
for a free clinic and hospital for crippled, maimed, and
diseased children.”
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
It was in the Driscoll Hospital that
open-heart surgery was first performed
in Corpus Christi. Dr. Jim Gabbard, a thoracic
surgeon, convinced the governing
❖ Clara’s brother, Robert Driscoll, Jr.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
board of the hospital to acquire equipment
for cardiac catheterizations. With
the help of a grant from the Ford
Foundation, the equipment was purchased.
In the late 1950s there were no
cardiologists in town, and Dr. Gabbard
performed the catheterizations himself at
the hospital. He found an increasing number
of patients who had congenital heart
defects and needed open-heart surgery.
About ten years later he was joined
by another thoracic surgeon, Dr. Herbert
Madalin, and the two decided that
open-heart surgery should have a priority
in the city. In articles published in Coastal
Bend Medicine, September/October 2004,
Dr. Madalin described the development of
the program:
❖ Dr. McIver Furman was Clara Driscoll’s physician.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Work commenced in the “laboratory,”
where we operated upon dogs—the same
as almost all groups who had started openheart
surgery programs. I must confess that
I use the term “laboratory” rather loosely—
it was actually the morgue in the Children’s
Hospital. We did the early phase of our
work in that chamber, only moving to
the operating room when all the involved
personnel felt comfortable with their roles.
3 2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Numerous unpaid volunteers helped
us in the development of the program.
These included the first perfusionist in
town, whom we trained—(Fay Drozd),
scrub nurses from Spohn and Memorial
as well as an anesthesiologist (Dr. Miles
McKitrick). Fortunately, a heart-lung
machine was available for our use. It had
been purchased by the local Heart
Association a few years earlier but was
just gathering dust until then.
The animals used had been consigned
by their owners to be “put to sleep,” as the
euphemism goes. The dogs, with one
exception, arrived well sedated. They never
knew of their contribution to the advancement
of surgery in our community.
The aforementioned exception was a
somewhat vicious (we thought) German
shepherd that trapped two thoracic surgeons
on top of the morgue table and even
bit one of them on the hand (not me)
when he attempted to slip a muzzle of
gauze over the dog. A potential standoff
was resolved when we were able to call
for help on the telephone in the room.
The canine’s seemingly vicious behavior
lasted about fifteen long minutes as
we waited for help. The animal suddenly
became docile and friendly when the
veterinarian who responded to our call
arrived and calmly sedated him. [A
Caller story at the time called the dogs
the “unsung heroes” of the surgery.]
Only after we were satisfied that our
pump technician was completely familiar
with the equipment and that all of our personnel
were well rehearsed in the conduct
of such surgery did we feel that we were
ready to operate upon patients. We then
scheduled our first case—a seven-year-old
child with a large atrial septal defect.
Now, we had to determine who would
be the surgeon on this case—Jim or I.
Although we did not give it much
thought at the time, whoever it was
would be the first surgeon to do openheart
surgery in Corpus Christi. The most
democratic method of selection, we
decided, was to flip a coin. As fate would
have it, I won the toss and therefore was
❖ A young girl undergoes a hearing test.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
the surgeon on the first case, with Jim
assisting. On subsequent cases, we alternated
our roles as surgeon and assistant.
Our open-heart program did well.
Upon the completion of our first twentyfour
cases (without mortality), the hospital
had a press conference to announce the
open-heart program. Attending the meeting
with the press were hospital spokesmen
as well as Jim and myself. We did not
permit the press to use our names in their
stories—as was the custom at that time.
Another among the first surgeons
trained in such surgery was Dr. Joseph
French Alsop, who graduated from Johns
Hopkins University and Medical School in
Baltimore in 1943 and served as medical
officer on Navy troop transport ships during
World War II. In 1950 he moved his
family to Corpus Christi, where he founded
the Corpus Christi Surgical Society. He
served as an officer in the Society and as
chief of staff at Memorial Hospital.
Dr. James Simpson, a pediatric cardiologist,
founded the Children’s Heart
Program of South Texas at the hospital in
1972. The program received a $17,700
grant in 1973 to fund follow-ups. In July
1978 the first Pacemaker implant in a newborn
took place. The father, a Lutheran,
tried to baptize the infant but was so overcome
that a Catholic nurse performed the
❖ Dr. Jim Gabbard, along with Dr. Herbert
Madalin, pioneered open-heart surgery in
Corpus Christi.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 8 ✦ 3 3

ite. By 1980 the program had seventeen
satellite clinics in thirteen South Texas
towns. Around this time Alpha Phi alums
sold Valentine lollipops to raise funds to
buy equipment for the cardiac section.
The first open-heart surgery on an
adult in Corpus Christi was performed
at Memorial Medical Center in November
1969. As late as 1970 the hospital did not
have a Cardiac Unit, but a Cardiology
Department was established there in 1972
under the direction of Dr. Sant K. Upmanyu.
In early 1978 the hospital began a
community wide genetics program.
“Genetic screening and counseling are
aimed at those whose genetic flaws cause
disability, sometime severe,” said medical
geneticist Dr. Ray Lewandoski.
Driscoll, Memorial Medical Center, and
Ada Wilson Crippled Children’s Hospital all
received community support. In October of
that year they were among recipients of a
grant from Champlin Refinery that totaled
$23,000. Starting in the early 1980s,
Driscoll also benefited from the national
Children’s Miracle Network Telethon. With
KIII’s Joe Gazin and Katherine Childers
making pitches every few minutes, the
1993 event raised $534,000. The previous
year’s sum was $602,000, thanks to a large
single donation and, in 1997, the total was
$735,309; in 1998, $850,000, and in 1999,
$963,135. The money raised went for
equipment and children’s programs,
including testing for diabetes and for
hearing problems in newborns. The
Fiesta de los Ninos, underwritten by
Koch Industries, Inc., Bechtel, American
Airlines/American Eagle, K-99, and
Southwest Airlines raised more than
$125,000 for the hospital in 1998.
Entertainment for patients and past
patients was not overlooked. Over the
years members of the Driscoll Children’s
Hospital Auxiliary visited, bringing companionship
and toys to patients. In the
fall of 1979, the hospital held its first
“Birthday Party” for “graduates” of the
newborn intensive care unit. “We’d like
to see them again,” Dr. Alfonso M. Prado
said. “It’s something we have been trying
to do for a long time.” “Darth Vader”
stuntman Tom Callahan visited in 1983.
Every year a Christmas party was held
for patients, previous patients, and their
families. The young patients were also
invited to submit designs for Christmas
cards. Those chosen were printed on
cards that were sold, with proceeds going
to benefit the children. Such policies continued
over the years.
On July 13, 1992, nine members of the
Coastal Bend Guides Association and
medical staff members took seventeen
❖ Channel 3’s Joe Gazin and Kathryn Childers inspiring donations at a Children’s Miracle Telethon.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
❖ A tiny baby receives treatment.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
patients to a Chemo Kids Fish Off. All of
the “kids” received a four-inch trophy.
One of them was 7-year-old Colton
Wright, who caught two 20-inch redfish
but said, “I’m not going to eat it.”
Clowns also came by to cheer up
the patients. Mary Ann Sinclair formed
“Clowns Who Care” in 1996 for the sole
purpose of entertaining Driscoll patients.
“At first I just planned to go over to
Driscoll by myself to visit the children,”
she said. “Then friends saw my costume
and said they wanted to be a clown.
Others heard about my plans and told me
they wanted to be a clown. It all came
together as if it had been preordained.”
The late 1980s were a time of growth for
the hospital. A Pediatric Rheumatology
Clinic opened on October 11, 1983. Dr.
Earl J. Brewer, chief of rheumatology at
Texas Children’s Hospital and clinical professor
in the pediatrics department of Baylor
College of Medicine in Houston, said, “We
are going to provide a coordinated approach
for children with rheumatoid diseases.”
A new seven-story tower opened on
October 25, 1987, and newly renovated
offices opened in January 1989 as the final
step of a $49 million expansion.
A partnership with Halo Flight emergency
medical service was announced on
3 4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

June 8, 1988. Driscoll was picked for the
air evacuation site because it had a helicopter
pad. The service, based in Brooks
County, also took patients to a hospital in
Falfurrias and later to other hospitals in
Corpus Christi.
The same year saw Driscoll Foundation
Children’s Hospital become Driscoll
Children’s Hospital. As part of Healthy
Children 2000, a national focus on ways
to prevent childhood injury and disease,
the Children’s Resource and Development
of South Texas opened. Dr. Mulukulta
Ramadrishna, pediatrician and chief of
staff-elect, pointed out that it would work
to prevent accidents.
A 1990 addition benefited the families
as much as or more than it did the
patients. It was the Ronald McDonald
House, which provided a place for the
families of inpatients to stay. It originally
housed sixteen families, operating at
almost 100 percent capacity. A 5,500-
square-foot expansion in 2001, funded by
grants and donations, added eight rooms
and a weekend manager’s room.
Along with Driscoll, the City-County
Health Department received funds from a
$71 million 1993 grant the state gave to
local agencies across Texas. Dr. Christopher
M. Buttery, Health Department director,
said, “Currently our WIC (Women, Infants
and Children) program has a caseload of
3,500 expectant women and their children
recertified each month. We give them
information on proper diet and vouchers
to buy supplementary nutrition.”
The hospital recorded a first in the
state in 1994 with a WIC clinic-onwheels,
which was designed to bring
health services to women and children
covered under the WIC program and living
in rural areas with little or no transportation.
The clinic provided prenatal
care, nutritional training, immunizations,
and basic health screening. In its first five
months it treated more than 2,500
patients. “The community’s reception is
so wonderful that we had wished we had
done it earlier,” said Monica Stender,
Driscoll’s WIC program director.
In the middle 1990s Dick King, executive
director of the Nueces County Medical
Society, said there were roughly fifty
pediatricians in the Corpus Christi area.
That was not enough. On December 3,
1996, officials from Driscoll, Texas A&M
University and Scott & White Memorial
Hospital signed an agreement to bring
more of the specialists to South Texas.
“Corpus Christi isn’t where the problem
is,” King said. “The problems are
in the (Rio Grande) Valley. One of the
reasons cases from the Valley are referred
to Driscoll is because there aren’t enough
pediatricians there to treat them”
Dr. J. E. Stibbards, Driscoll’s president
and chief executive officer, said there
were only 60 or 70 pediatricians in all of
the Valley to handle some 250,000 people
younger than 18. And that population is
expected to grow, he added.
“We need more pediatricians in South
Texas, and this is one way to do it,” he
said. “The whole purpose of the program
is to assure that quality pediatricians are
available to the children in South Texas.”
In the meantime the hospital continued
to make technological advances. In 1997
a CT scanner operated by a high-speed
computer made it possible for radiologists
❖ An autograph is a welcome addition to a cast.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
to search for injuries and get results in
a few minutes instead of the half hour
previous machines took. The scanner was
the first of its kind in South Texas.
Dr. Kirsten Mogbo, a radiologist, said
the equipment eliminated the need to
sedate the children. “It’s all over before
they are too fearful and want to move
around, “ she said.
❖ A $49 million expansion program brought this
tower in 1987.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 8 ✦ 3 5

❖ Doctors Regional Hospital on South Alameda.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF WILSON WALRAVEN.
C H A P T E R 9
MORE GROWTH AND HCA
The realization that more medical
facilities were needed on the south side of
town grew as the city grew in population.
One new patient care facility, Parkview
General Hospital, opened in 1961 at
4600 Weber Road.
That same year Hurricane Carla hit
the Texas Coast. As it moved slowly
across the Gulf of Mexico, Carla steadily
strengthened to its peak of 175 mph
(280 km/h) winds (Category 5 intensity)
on September 11. It weakened just before
landfall between Port O’Connor and Port
Lavaca, but the storm’s surge still caused
considerable damage to Corpus Christi.
At the time Carla became the largest
hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin.
Doctors Hospital, with twenty-six beds,
opened at 3160 Reid Drive in 1962 and in
1975 bought the Thomas Spann Clinic on
Brownlee and operated it as Doctors
Hospital North. A new and larger Doctors
Hospital opened at Alameda and Texan
Trail in April 1980, and in 1982 Doctors
Hospital North was closed. Parkview
went through a series of name changes,
becoming Physicians & Surgeons Hospital
in 1968 and Southside Community
Hospital in 1986. In 1983 Doctors
Hospital became Humana Hospital, but
in 1993 the name was changed again,
to Doctors Regional Medical Center.
The name change was not merely
cosmetic. Columbia Healthcare Corp.
had previously acquired Southside
Community Hospital and Bayview
Hospital, but a new Columbia Healthcare
Corp. was formed in 1993 with a merger
between Columbia and Galen Health
Care, Inc., formerly Humana. The new
corporation also acquired the soon-tobe-completed
Bay Area Medical Center
on Padre Island Drive in a partnership
known as Bay Area Medical Group and
including 100 Corpus Christi physicians
and Dallas-based Medical Care America.
“I can only say my reaction is that
it’s a very positive move,” said John A.
Fromhold, executive director of Doctors
Regional Medical Center. “The two
hospitals will be able to provide comprehensive
healthcare in the community.”
In July of that same year, Doctors
Regional opened a new Women’s
Pavilion, and Bay Area opened its
doors in September with an open house
attended by 3,500 to 4,000 people.
By the summer of 1994 Columbia
merged with Nashville, Tennesseebased
Hospital Corporation of America,
known simply as HCA. In October
1995 Bay Area Medical Group opened
the Cancer Center of South Texas,
a state-of-the-art facility on Rodd Field
Road, as a joint venture with four
local physicians. Robstown Riverside
would also become a member of the
HCA group as Northwest Hospital,
and in 1998 the group opened the
Heart Hospital.
Focusing on a specialized service—
such as cardiology care—hones the
talents of staff and lowers costs by eliminating
duplication, said Steve Woerner,
Medical Center CEO. “For us, it’s a
matter of organizing the various services
into one place. We’re concentrating our
talent base and technology.”
3 6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ Senior student nurse Rita Mueller taking care of a baby at Spohn hospital in 1963.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
As more facilities opened, the need
arose for more medical personnel. Nurse
Nunnie Clements, a graduate of the Santa
Rosa School of Nursing in San Antonio,
was one newcomer who played a major
role in nursing education in the city. She
moved to Corpus Christi after she was
told her training would enable her to get
any job she desired. She started at Spohn
as a medication nurse, but, dissatisfied
by the nurse shortage that made her late
with medications, she briefly became an
office nurse for Dr. Foy Moody.
In 1953 Spohn asked her to come back
as an operating-room nurse, an offer she
was glad to accept.
“Corpus Christi was blessed with
many good surgeons,” she said, “Drs. Joe
Alsop, Chris Isensee, J. Gordon Bryson,
Sherman Coleman.”
However, she had a special working
relationship with Dr. E. Jackson Giles.
“I was fascinated by how he handled
living tissue,” she said. “He would dissect
everything down so you could see every
bit of the anatomy.”
Nurse Clements worked with Dr.
Joseph Klotz in neurosurgery. “He looked
so young,” she said, “but he was so smart
and good.”
She also told of working with Dr.
Bryson in cataract surgery and with heart
surgeon James Gabbard. She described
an operation in 1957 when Dr. Gabbard
replaced a heart valve in a patient who
otherwise would have died. At that time
Corpus Christi did not have a heart-lung
machine, but for some reason the surgery
had to be done in the city.
“Dr. Gabbard asked if I would scrub
and [said] that we needed to practice with
six special instruments every day for
a week before the operation,” she said.
“At the crucial part of the operation,
Dr. Gabbard had only three minutes to do
his thing with the six instruments. He just
wanted to put his hand out and have me
give him the right instrument, and that’s
❖ Preparations for Hurricane Carla in 1961
included moving sailboats onto the county tax office
parking lot.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ Post-Carla damage along a section of Ocean Drive.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
C h a p t e r 9 ✦ 3 7

what we did. Dr. Sherman Coleman
assisted. The morning after the surgery,
Dr. Gabbard came to the OR and said,
‘Come on, Clem. Let’s go see our patient.’
We were happy all around.”
In 1950 Sister Mary Vincent O’Donnell
was named Spohn Hospital administrator.
The federal government had passed the
Hill-Burton Act, which provided funds
for hospital construction, and Sister Mary
Vincent vigorously pursued grants. A new
five-story wing, with an additional one
hundred beds, nurseries, operating and
emergency rooms, X-ray departments,
and orthopedic facilities, plus a convent
on the fifth floor, opened in 1952.
Sister Mary Vincent also planned to
reopen the nursing school, as there was
a national shortage of nurses. She asked
the Sisters of the Incarnate Word in San
Antonio, her order, to provide funds and
also contacted Ben Vaughn, Sr., administrator
of the James R. Dougherty, Jr.,
Foundation in Beeville. The Sisters of
Charity and the Foundation each donated
$300,000, and the James R. Dougherty,
Jr., School of Nursing opened in 1954,
named in honor of a Dougherty son killed
in action in World War II.
In 1957 Nunnie Clements was working
half the year as head nurse in the
Spohn operating room and the other
half as operating room clinical instructor
at the hospital. In 1959 she was hired
as full-time clinical instructor at the
nursing school.
Even with the school there was a backlog
of operating room schedules as there
was still a lack of trained operating room
technicians. That same year she agreed to
requests to design, direct, and teach an
OR technician training program. Three
laypersons were accepted in the first class
and five selected for the second.
Nurse Clements left the school to
become the director of nursing at
Doctors Hospital, a position she held
until 1965. During that time she worked
with Dr. C. A. Struve and Dr. Bryson to
develop a complete lintless eye-surgery
draping technique.
❖ James R. Daugherty, Jr., for whom the
Daugherty Foundation was named.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
As late as 1969 ambulance service was
provided, on a rotating basis, by funeral
homes. Anyone needing emergency service
had to first find out which funeral
home was on duty, then call it. The ambulances
often had no attendant except the
driver, and the system was dubbed “Grab
and Run,” the idea being to get the injured
to the nearest hospital as soon as possible.
Dr. Everett L. “Bud” Holt, president of the
Medical Society that year, wrote, “It was
darkly rumored that sometimes the driver
would go slowly in order to make the
victim a funeral home customer.”
❖ Dr. Everett Holt.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
When he became president in 1972,
Dr. Holt said, he asked a former president,
Dr. Hans Heymann, what the
Medical Society could do. Dr. Heymann
suggested starting an ambulance service,
and the Society adopted his suggestion.
The organization paid the Town Club for
a luncheon and invited the mayor and
city council, the county judge and commissioners,
the League of Women Voters,
union leaders and captains of industry,
and television and newspaper reporters.
After lunch Carl B. Young, Jr., who
had worked in emergency care since an
early age, gave a slide presentation showing
such sickening situations as patients
drowning in their own blood or vomitus
or those with serious neck injuries
mishandled. The luncheon guests got the
point, and all present agreed that the
system should be changed. “It was amusing
to see how agreeable everyone was
after Carl Young’s presentation and in
the glare of the TV cameras!” Dr. Holt
said later.
Soon the system was changed. Under
the leadership of Dr. Holt and Young,
along with the Traffic Safety Advisory
Board, the League of Women Voters,
local organizations, doctors, the Nueces
County Hospital District, and others, the
Corpus Christi city council agreed to
purchase ambulances, train and equip
personnel, and assign the program to the
Corpus Christi fire department. To cut
response time, ambulances were to be
deployed at fire stations throughout
the city. At first they were manned by
firefighters who volunteered to be trained
as emergency medical technicians. Later
all firefighters in the city were required to
be paramedics.
In 1973, shortly after the department
had obtained its first “Jaws of Life” equipment
to aid in extricating accident victims,
Young conducted the first Emergency
Medical Technician training courses.
Dr. Heymann was also greatly involved
in another Medical Society achievement—the
formation of the Coastal Bend
Community Blood Bank during the 1969
3 8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

presidency of Dr. John W. Chriss. Dr.
Heymann, Dr. Sid Conolly, and Dr. Jerry
Silverman began the project in 1968,
while Dr. Heymann was Society president.
The Society provided $25,000 in
seed money through a no-interest loan,
which was later repaid. The project had
strong support from Editor Robert M.
Jackson of the Caller-Times and other
media. Vernon Smylie’s public relations
firm provided favorable publicity for a
token fee. Charles Porter provided discounted
legal services, and later attorney
Dave Coover, Sr., provided his time for
free and also helped the Society obtain
additional property.
The Blood Bank opened on South
Brownlee, with Bill Henderson as executive
director, just in time to be closed
after Hurricane Celia struck the city on
August 3, 1970. The Category 3 storm
hit Corpus Christi directly, causing nearly
one-half billion dollars in damages
and killing fifteen people in Texas.
In spite of some generous donations,
the lack of cash flow would have
bankrupted the facility had not George
Schuster donated some undeveloped
property, which provided collateral for
outstanding loans. The first medical
director was Dr. Jerry Silverman, who
served without pay, as Dr. Francis Parks
and others did later.
❖ A building damaged by Hurricane Celia.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ Residents lined up for Red Cross assistance after
the storm.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
❖ Paramedics did not have far to transport this victim of an Ocean Drive accident.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 9 ✦ 3 9

❖ A patient is placed in a magnetic resonance imaging machine.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C H A P T E R 1 0
THE SOCIETY’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS
By 1974 Medicare was approaching
the end of its first decade. Dr. Vernon L.
Medlin, president of the Medical Society
at that time, said that the major problems
of his tenure came from Medicare
billing, largely because doctors and their
staffs did not understand the process.
He and Dr. Harold Pruessner became
interested in the procedure and attended
several meetings of the Texas Medical
Association on Tax-Financed Health
Care Programs.
Talk of national health insurance was
on the table in 1976, along with tort
reform, relicense issues, questions of ethical
standards, and the health-planning
act of 1974. Dr. James Albright, Society
president, said members discussed and
lobbied for their points, although some
of the issues remained unresolved.
Dr. Albright was proud of the attendance
of 100 to 125 members at the
dinner meetings that year. On March 30,
1976, Doctor’s Day, Mayor Jason Luby
presented the organization a special
award for healthcare concerns in Corpus
Christi. Swine flu immunizations also
marked the year.
In 1977 the Society was the only one
in Texas to have unified membership in
the Texas Medical Association and the
American Medical Association. Under
the leadership of President John Paul
Schulze, M.D., the Executive Committee
and the Board of Censors spent many
hours addressing members’ concerns.
4 0 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ Leslie Lopez has her blood pressure checked by Laura Berlanga at the annual Health Fair.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
The following year those concerns
included cost containment and health
planning. For a variety of reasons,
including inflation, a push for access to
quality care, new technology, and an
increase in hospital and third-payer
charges, costs were four times what
they had been in 1968. In his message
to members, Dr. Lowell Kepp, president,
said, “The solutions to our complex
problems will not be solved by more
Government, but, instead, we the people
must insist on better Government.”
To that end and following a suggestion
by Dr. Vernon L. Medlin, the Society
formed a committee of informed physicians
to assist legislators in healthcare matters.
Headed by Dr. Holt, the committee continued
its efforts in 1979. On an ominous
note, insurance costs were rising because of
an increase in the number of malpractice
lawsuits; and, because of fear of being sued,
doctors were calling for more tests and
expensive procedures than they otherwise
might have recommended. Hospital energy
costs had quadrupled in the previous
decade. However, Dr. J. E. Antoni,
chairman of the physicians’ costs subcommittee,
found that medical care rose 8.5
percent and physicians’ fees 7.8 percent
while the Bureau of Labor’s Consumer Price
Index rose 8.6 percent.
Looking back on his 1979 term as
Society president, Dr. C. L. Concklin
recalled a gratifying experience he and
his predecessor had shared the previous
year. Along with other doctors and smaller
medical societies, they worked for
Dr. Mario Ramirez from Rio Grande City
as president-elect of the Texas Medical
Society. Most of the previous presidents
had been specialists from a large city, and
they wanted a Hispanic general practitioner
from a small one. Dr. Ramirez was
elected and was “a very good president,”
Dr. Concklin said.
In his later years Dr. Concklin wrote a
book, Stepping Stones of Understanding
for Parents Carrying the Next Generation.
Its forty chapters covered parenting
issues from the impact of noise on
fetuses to teenage rejection of parents.
One of the Society’s highly successful
meetings was held in 1980 while
Dr. Herbert Madalin was president and
Sally Madalin was president of the
Society’s auxiliary, the wives group later
known as the Alliance. The meeting
was held at the “Yellow Rose,” a western
dance hall that even had a mechanical
bull, which several doctors tried to ride.
The guest speaker was Larry King, author
of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. A
sign at the event read “The Best Little
Medical Society in Texas.”
When Dr. Marco T. Eugenio became
president in 1983, tort reform had
become a major issue. The Society
worked to inform doctors and the
community about the need for the
Legislature to pass measures to bring
down the number of malpractice
lawsuits. Committees also worked to
improve doctors’ relationships with
patients and the community. Tort reform
efforts became stronger in 1990 when a
measure of limited reforms passed the
Legislature, but plaintiffs’ attorneys were
soon able to destroy them.
❖ Sally Madalin, wife of Dr. Herbert Madalin, was
president of the Medical Society’s Women’s Auxiliary
in 1980.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 1 0 ✦ 4 1

Starting in 1966, the Society held an
annual Health Fair at various locations,
from Memorial Medical Center to Padre
Staples Mall. In 1985, during the
presidency of Dr. Roberto Bosquez, the
fair, which had the theme “Better Fit
for Life,” was moved to Memorial
Coliseum. More than 6,000 who attended
received free medical testing and
health information.
❖ Dino Parenti, with Gilbert X-ray of Houston, working on installation of a CAT scanner at Memorial Medical
Center in 1981.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
That same year the Society received
word that the 1990 Annual Session of
the Texas Medical Society convention
would, for the second time, be held in
Corpus Christi. Dr. R. Michael Dulaney,
Society president during the convention,
said, “Planning began two years in
advance…and included our most valuable
resource, the Auxiliary. Together,
the plans proceeded smoothly, and we
were able to pull off a convention that
stretched Corpus Christi to the limit.”
The city worked with the Society through
the Convention Center and Tourist
Bureau, and every hotel room in town
was filled.
Guest speakers were an important part
of monthly meetings. In 1989 Dr.
Lawrence F. Buxton, president of the
Society, arranged for Spencer Christian,
Good Morning America weatherman, to
speak. Christian’s major point was “Seize
the moment,” and Dr. Buxton said that he
later used this philosophy to counsel
young, college-age people.
Dr. Janis Birchall, who became president
in 1993, felt that the Society should
be more involved in the community and
its health problems. One result of this
opinion was an NCMS planning retreat at
Port Royal on Mustang Island, where doctors
spent two days planning changes that
would connect them to the community
and recruit more members. Pat Turner,
vice president of Nursing Administration
at Spohn, directed the event, and former
mayor Betty Turner gave a motivational
speech on opening night. The sessions
must have paid off, as members were at
the city council meeting when Dr. Mark
Geneser made the case for banning smoking
in restaurants and at a conference
with other county agencies to reduce teen
pregnancies. Although the results were
not instant, the efforts did show progress.
Also in 1993 Dr. John Pettigrove
became editor of Coastal Bend Medicine.
A financial crisis hit the organization in
1994, according to Dr. William E. Swan,
Jr., president that year. However, Dr.
Ernesto Guido and Dr. Kathleen Archer
4 2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ Dr. Nina Sisley.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
established controls, and the crisis was
solved. The Society continued to support
tort reform and, in addition, supported the
Patient Protection Act and the Health Care
Quality Improvement Act. Members voted
in a poll to de-unify, that is, no longer
require membership in the AMA.
By that time the “Golden Age of
Medicine” had passed, and Dr. H. Ross
Garza, Society president in 1995,
described it as “the best of times and yet
the worst…” for the medical profession
and the patients. Improvements in technology—CAT
scans (computerized axial
tomography), MRIs (magnetic resonance
imaging), laparoscopic surgery, sonograms—these
and other innovations
brought incredible improvements. On the
other hand, Medicare began to limit payments,
prolong payment time, and add
regulations; and doctors were losing control
to managed care plans—HMOs
(Health Maintenance Organizations), PPOs
(Preferred Provider Organizations), and
other third-party payers. Medical liability
insurance costs rose so high that many
doctors left the profession. In 1992 one in
five Nueces County physicians was sued.
In April, Texas Secretary of State Tony
Garza visited the city and spoke to the
Medical Society at a meeting at Spohn
Hospital. “We will not be able to attract
physicians to treat the people of Nueces
County and South Texas as long as there
is a fear of frivolous lawsuits,” he said,
but it would be several years before
progress was made in this area.
It took nearly two years for the group
to officially end its status as a unified
society. The by-laws were finally amended
to that effect in 1997, during the presidential
term of Dr. Nina M. Sisley. The
Society established a Speaker’s Bureau
and sent information to civic groups to let
them know that doctors were available to
speak on medical topics at their meetings.
Two weeks before Dr. Charles H.
Campbell, 2000 president, took office, an
article in the publication of the Institute
of Medical Study accused doctors and
hospitals of causing thousands of deaths
annually by making mistakes.
❖ Betty Sue Perry operating a new Vasoscan at Spohn Hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
“The local media did like the media
in the rest of the country,” Dr. Campbell
said. “It blindly reported the release and
the study’s flawed conclusions.”
In response the local medical community
formed an “Action Team” that convinced
the Caller-Times to run a rebuttal
and to commit to seek information from
local medical professionals before printing
any similar articles.
That year also saw the formation of a
“Patient Care Task Force” to see that complaints
about patient care were taken to
the top level of hospitals’ administrations.
The continuing crisis in malpractice
lawsuits and insurance companies’ delays
in reimbursement were areas of major
concern when Dr. Robert E. Mastin
became president in 2001. Dr. Mastin
said, “For the first time in my memory,
a group of physicians and spouses made
the trip to Austin to lobby the politicians.”
Although the bill they backed
passed, Governor Rick Perry vetoed it.
C h a p t e r 1 0 ✦ 4 3

❖ Spohn Hospital underwent major expansions during the 1960s.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C H A P T E R 1 1
THE SPOHN SYSTEM
❖ A Radiation Therapy Center was named for
Rachel Vaughan.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
Over the years Spohn Hospital evolved
into a major medical system. In 1964
the $410,000 Rachael Dougherty Vaughn
Radiation Therapy Center, was opened,
dedicated to the memory of Rachael
Dougherty Vaughan. It was funded
in part by the James R. Dougherty
Foundation and was expanded in 2000
to house radiation therapy and all
outpatient treatment.
After The Federal Training Act of 1964
provided funds for colleges and universities
to develop nursing degree programs,
Del Mar College developed a nursing
curriculum and in 1968 the Dougherty
School at Spohn Hospital closed.
Through the succeeding years, however,
the hospital continued to expand. The
Welder Memorial Chapel was added in
1955 and another five-story addition,
Annex B, was made in 1961. The main
building was remodeled and enlarged
in 1965 and a 20-bed intensive care
unit completed. A cardiac diagnostic
center was approved in 1966, and in
1969 a five-story, $3,250,000 addition
gave the hospital a total of 455 beds.
A nuclear medicine facility, Respiratory
Therapy Department, and a seven-bed
coronary care unit were opened in 1972,
and a hospital-based computer system
was installed.
Open-heart surgery began at the
hospital in 1974, and a renal care unit
opened. A special care unit, brain
scanner, and ultrasound equipment were
acquired in 1975 and a total body
scanner put in place in 1978.
4 4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Technology continued to advance
in the 1980s, with a $479,000 linear
accelerator placed in use in 1981. The
$70,000,000 Sarita Kenedy East addition
of 100 beds opened and a 21-bed oncology
unit and closed-circuit television
were launched in 1982. That same year
saw the dedication of the Christ the Healer
statue, sculpted by Dr. Sherman Coleman,
on the hospital grounds.
❖ Dr. Sherman T. Coleman, left, along with his
daughter, Kathleen Coleman Edwards, created this
Christ the Healer statue for the Sarita Kenedy East
Addition to Spohn Hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
In 1985 the hospital had 10 floors,
550 beds, 440 doctors, and 1,600
employees. Expansion continued in 1988
as a new rehabilitation department was
added and the lobby renovated. Other
areas involved included medical, surgical,
and cardiovascular intensive care
units, a satellite pharmacy, an endoscopy
suite, and other diagnostic services.
On August 23, 1991, Hospital
President Sister Kathleen Coughlin
became the first woman to receive the
Corpus Christi Distinguished Citizen’s
award. Civic leader Barry Andrews,
owner of Andrews Distributors, said,
“I found her to be the driving force
behind Spohn Hospital System and one
of the most competent administrators
I’ve ever worked with.”
In June 1993 Sister Kathleen was
installed as chairwoman of the Texas
Hospital Association’s Board of Trustees.
In 1990 more than one in three births
in Nueces, Kleberg, and San Patricio
counties occurred with little or no prenatal
care, according to a 1991 study for
the Spohn Hospital System. To mitigate
this situation, Spohn and Driscoll
hospitals, in the fall of 1993, introduced
mobile clinics to reach more pregnant
women, especially in rural areas.
❖ Sister Kathleen Coughlin.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
“There is a concern, based on our data
and mortality rates among newborns, that
people (women) are coming in right upon
the moment of delivery and when they are
asked what kind of prenatal care they have
had, they said, ‘little to none,’” said Leticia
Harris, coordinator for Spohn’s clinic.
A second whole body scanner was
acquired in 1983, Digital Subtraction
Angiography was added, and Home
Health/Hospice Service inaugurated. A
birthing center and a lithotripter were
added in 1984 and a LIFELINE Security
System begun for elderly or disabled
people living alone.
A group of twenty nurses and health
care specialists went beyond the call of
duty in March 1982. With an oil company
contributing $1,200, they raised
$5,000 to buy a machine that enabled
Manuel Tello, who was suffering from
ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou
Gehrig’s disease), to leave the hospital and
breathe at home.
❖ Nurse Kay Appel, right, discusses a telemetry monitor system in the cardiac-medical surgical unit at Spohn
Hospital with Senator Phil Gramm, left, as monitor technician Vangie Barrera watches.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 1 1 ✦ 4 5

❖ Left to right: nurses Rita Mueller and Maria Simmons and Dr. F. F. Rogers inspect a new emergency room at
Spohn Hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Even in the 1990s Dr. Damon
Bernwanger had experiences that illustrated
this problem. One day he heard a
man shouting, “This woman’s gonna have
a baby…follow me!”
The doctor grabbed what equipment
he could and followed the man out the
door, only to see him jump into his car
and drive away. He followed and the man
drove and drove, onto a caliche road and
ending up near a campfire where a group
of men had gathered. Nearby, under a
wagon, was a woman screaming in pain.
After Dr. Bernwanger delivered the baby
safely, another man came up and said,
“I’m the father.” He handed the doctor
$25. The doctor had another, similar
experience, only that time he delivered
twins—and the father paid him $50.
Beginning in September 1992 Spohn
Hospital was the only one south of
Houston to take part in a nationwide
study to combat heart disease. Yvonne
Lopez, director of the study, said, “This is
the first heart screening that includes
women and others besides white males.
We’re also pleased because it includes
Hispanics, which make up the majority of
our population.”
Subjects of the study were to undergo
an initial screening and return every six
months for five years. The employees
were to receive counseling to encourage
them to “modify behavior patterns that
contribute to any unfavorable results.”
After years of planning, on April 11,
1991, the system announced a decision
to open a southside satellite hospital
emphasizing women’s services and family
care. The site was dedicated on July 25,
1991; ground was broken on March 18,
1992; and on February 14, 1994, the
102-bed Spohn Hospital South opened
as a full-service acute care hospital. All
maternity services were moved to the
Southside location.
Because studies showed that women
make most healthcare decisions, local
hospitals began to update and expand
their labor and delivery services. Part of
courting female customers is giving them
good first hospital experiences, said
Sister Kathleen Coughlin. “When you’re
a new couple starting out, who’s the
first one to go to the hospital?” she asked.
“The woman, basically because she’s
having a baby.”
❖ Left to right: Nurse Leigh Ann Simmons explaining the birthing unit to sisters-in-law Kelly and Kathy Byerley.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
4 6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Of 102 beds at Spohn South, 48 were
set aside for women’s services and
labor and delivery. Twenty-seven special
“BirthDay suites” provided a home-like
environment in which women could stay
throughout the course of labor, delivery,
and recovery, along with her baby if
she desired. The BirthDay rooms included
a wooden, colonial rocking chair for
breast feeding or putting baby to sleep.
In the same room was a sink where a
dad—with the help of nurses—could
give his newborn a first bath. In the event
the birth didn’t go smoothly, framed
pastel-prints on each side of the ultramodern
birthing bed slid over to reveal
wall hookups for oxygen and anything
else needed.
In July 1996, after seven months of
negotiations, Memorial Medical Center
became a part of the Spohn system.
Spohn beat out Columbia/HCA Healthcare
Corp., which was also interested in
Memorial, with a bid to spend more than
$7.9 million annually to lease the hospital
and provide capital improvements
for thirty years with the option of two
additional five-year terms.
❖ Spohn Memorial emergency room Telemetry System.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
“It’s a good thing for Spohn, and it’s a
good thing for Nueces County and South
Texas,” Spohn President Jake Henry said.
“We’re glad Memorial will be coming into
our constellation of health care facilities.”
“This is a proud moment,” County
Judge Richard Borchard said. “I think
the taxpayers are the real winners in
this. With this collaboration, we should
be able to maintain the current tax rate.”
❖ Nurses helping a new mother get acquainted with her infant.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 1 1 ✦ 4 7

❖ Spohn Hospital President, Sister Kathleen
Coughlin, shows a model of the projected Spohn
Hospital South.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ A replica of The Healing Christ receiving the
blessing of Bishop Rene Gracida at ceremonies at Spohn
Memorial Hospital in October 1996.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Memorial President David López said
it was difficult for the hospital district’s
board managers to decide whether to
recommend Spohn or Columbia. “Their
proposals were so competitive,” López
said “But in the end, the board felt going
with Spohn was the right thing to do.”
❖ Accompanied by Sister Kathleen Coughlin,
Bishop Rene Gracida blesses Spohn Hospital South on
its opening.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
To meet Memorial’s demands, Spohn
agreed to maintain the hospital as the
regional trauma center, assume current
levels of indigent and charity care, and
keep revenues in Nueces County to
expand services or reduce taxes. After
some confusion the Catholic hospital
❖ Memorial Medical Center became part of the Spohn System in 1996.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
4 8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

clarified its position that therapeutic
abortions were permissible when the life
of the mother was at stake.
Expansion continued in 1996 when
the nonprofit system took over Bee
County Hospital and broke ground on a
new cardiac/surgery center at Spohn
Shoreline. Up until that time the operating
rooms were small, with low ceilings.
The new rooms were state-of-the-art,
with a laboratory, pre-admission testing
equipment, facilities for cardiac care, two
cystoscopy rooms for kidney and bladder
operations, and recovery rooms.
“With this facility we hope to do
more outpatient cases here,” said Robert
Butler, the system’s executive vice
president. “This will be a very patientfriendly
facility.”
❖ CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Alice.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
❖ CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Beeville.
❖ Mobile units provide medical care and materials
throughout the area.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
In 1994 a group of local women formed
First Friday, an organization to fight breast
cancer. The group, which partnered with
the Spohn System’s Breast Care Program,
held annual fund-raising events with
cancer survivor celebrities such as journalist
Linda Ellerbee, author Kathy Latour,
actress Marsha Wallace, actor/husband &
wife team Jill Eikenberry and Michael
Tucker, and actress Diahann Carroll as
speakers. Money raised provided yearround
educational programs, television
spots promoting early detection, and free
mammograms for women who could not
afford them, said Joan Moss, breast-care
educator for the Spohn Health System.
❖ Spohn Hospital South on Saratoga Boulevard opened February 14, 1994.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 1 1 ✦ 4 9

❖ Coronary care nurses station.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ Trauma Room at Spohn Memorial Hospital.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
5 0 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

In January 1996 the system launched
a breast-care system at Spohn South to
consolidate breast-care services. The program
included a toll-free number for
women’s questions.
The hospital also honored some of
its own. Three top doctors received
Physician Leadership Awards in a ceremony
at the Corpus Christi Country Club on
March 30, 1998. They were Drs. E. Ben
Groner, Joe Lewis, and Benson L. Martin.
The three had practiced at Spohn for a
total of 114 years, and each had served
as chief of staff. Dr. Groner, a graduate
of Tulane University School of Medicine,
joined the staff in 1951 and specialized
in internal medicine. Dr. Lewis joined
in 1961 after graduating from Baylor
University. He served as medical director
of the laboratory at Spohn Shoreline and
as chairman of the department of pathology.
Dr. Martin, who earned his medical
degree from the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston, joined the
staff in 1965. He was also involved
with Spohn Kleberg Memorial Hospital
and served on the Executive Council
of the Texas Association of Obstetrics
and Gynecology.
In 1996 Dr. Groner received the
Arthritis Foundation Humanitarian Award.
He was also honored as the 1999 honoree
of the National Kidney Foundation of the
Texas Coastal Bend.
Spohn Health System became CHRISTUS
Spohn Health System in November 1998,
when it merged with the Sisters of
Charity of the Incarnate Word in San
Antonio. The move consolidated twentyseven
hospitals, four long-term care
facilities, and seven acute-care sites
with a total of 23,000 employees in
Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri,
and Utah. At that time the Spohn System
operated five hospitals—three in Corpus
Christi, one in Kingsville, and one in
Beeville. In 1999 the System added
CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Alice to serve
residents of Alice and the surrounding
Jim Wells, Duval, Jim Hogg, Live Oak,
and Brooks counties.
❖ New Spohn South operating room.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
In December CHRISTUS Spohn
Shoreline joined in a Stem Cell
Transplant Program with the University
of Texas M. D. Anderson outreach
program. Nora Fraser, health system
vice president, said the affiliation
meant that some local patients would
benefit from one of the world’s
leading cancer treatment centers without
leaving home.
Pregnant women in the area also stood to
benefit from a newer mobile van acquired in
August 2000. CHRISTUS St. John Hospital
in Nassau Bay near Houston donated a 40-
foot 1993 Land Yacht, which served rural
patients who couldn’t afford prenatal care or
had no way to get to it. In addition, the unit
provided educational materials, treatment
for common illnesses, and health screenings
for cholesterol, blood pressure, and anemia.
C h a p t e r 1 1 ✦ 5 1

❖ This linear accelerator was placed in use in 1981.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ A nurse prepares a mammography machine.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ Newer digital mammograms help early diagnosis of breast cancer.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
5 2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ New whirlpool added to Memorial burn unit in 1967.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C H A P T E R 1 2
TECHNOLOGY AND PREVENTIVE CARE
❖ Dr. Jackson Upshaw holding a knee prosthesis
he developed.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
While the computer age seemed to
usher in an explosion of new technologies,
many exciting new procedures were
the result of years of study and research.
One such methodology was developed
by a Corpus Christi orthopedic surgeon,
Dr. Jackson E. Upshaw. It was the knee
joint implant design, which made knee
replacement surgery possible and helped
untold numbers of wheelchair-bound
people to walk again.
Dr. Upshaw, who came to Corpus
Christi in 1950 after completing his
orthopedic surgery residency at the Mayo
Clinic, focused on knees after his own
knee was injured in an accident, At that
time persons with knee injuries were
confined to wheelchairs or to using canes.
“There was simply nothing we could
do, and this spurred my interest in finding
a replacement,” he said.
The long search for a transplant
operation began in the 1950s. Dr.
Upshaw would fly to Houston to dissect
a knee, eventually studying more than
200. The complexity of the joint posed
many problems.
“The knee is not a single curve but a
succession of curves, front to back,” he
said. “It has to be able to bend not only forward
and back but also a little side to side.”
He tried a variety of materials. In 1964
a metal-Teflon joint held in place with
bone grafts was promising, but four years
later the Teflon started to disintegrate. He
went to England, where another doctor
was working on joints made of polyethylene
and using a special cement to bond
the material to the bone. After Dr.
Upshaw showed the first model at a medical
meeting in 1969, headlines followed
all over the world.
C h a p t e r 1 2 ✦ 5 3

The manufacturer did not believe that a
doctor from “Corpus Christi, Texas” could
make such a discovery and recommended
that a team work on the project. The team,
consisting of Dr. Upshaw and Dr. Mark
Coventry of the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Lee Riley
of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,
Dr. Gerald Finderman of the University of
California at Los Angeles Center for the
Health Sciences, and Dr. Roderick Turner
of Harvard Medical School, met every six
weeks for three years to exchange notes
and cases before publishing the first study
of knee replacement patients.
Dr. Upshaw performed his first knee
replacement on January 27, 1971, on a
45-year-old highway department worker
who had been injured in an accident.
Most of his operations, however, were on
persons sixty years old or older, most of
whom suffered from severe arthritis. Dr.
Upshaw also performed hip replacements
before his retirement in December 1984.
The late 1980s saw many hospitals
undergo a period of financial stress, and
local ones were no exception. Even so,
Spohn, Memorial, and Humana, which
became Doctors Regional Hospital, had
1,000 beds available in 1988, and their
occupancy rates were higher than the
Texas average. The state rate in 1986 was
55.2 percent, down from 70 percent in
1980. Spohn’s rate in 1988 was 82 percent.
The reduced occupancy rates were not
all bad, because medical advances that
shortened hospital stays were a large part
of the reason. For example, cataract surgery
that previously had required two- or
three-day hospital stays had become a
strictly outpatient procedure. Duplication
of services was another cause. MMC
Administrator Lipes said, “Everyone is
getting into the act of doing what the
other guy does. It is extremely wasteful of
resources to continue this duplication.”
However in May 1982 Spohn and
Memorial Medical Center had found a
way to economize. They combined their
purchase of intravenous solutions, resulting
in a savings of $70,000.
Memorial Medical Center acquired the
city’s first Magnetic Resonance Imaging
machine in 1985. In January 1987 a new
cardiocathertization lab was opened next
to the ICU and a new whirlpool added to
the burn unit. The first sleep disorder
clinic was opened at Memorial in 1989.
By 1992 Memorial, Spohn, Driscoll, and
Southside Community hospitals all had
MRI machines.
“MRI scanning is like taking a piece of
French bread, taking an electric knife and
thinly cutting it layer by layer,” Elmer
Kubsch, chief technician of the MRI and
CAT Scanning Department at Memorial,
said. “You look at each layer on three different
planes. So you have the ability to
spot a brain tumor or a nerve tumor. And
we can tell where the blood is coming
from and tell the surgeon what nerves are
blocked and where to operate.
“It is difficult and costly to keep up
with the latest technology,” he said. “Just
the software upgrade can cost upwards of
$100,000, and a one-year service contract
$150,000 to $200,000.”
However, more new technologies were
at hand. At the Rehab Hospital in 1990 a
computer program let stroke victims create
sentences with pictures. Humana in
1989 introduced laser-assisted peripheral
angioplasty and nonsurgical artherectomy
to remove cholesterol buildup in the
lower part of the body.
A new seizure-monitoring system
acquired by Spohn Hospital made it easier
to pinpoint brain seizures that are sporadic
or not easily identifiable by other
means. The equipment, called an EEG
(electroencephalogram) Video Monitoring
❖ Patients are closely monitored during tests.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ Betty Sue Perry operates Spohn’s seizure-monitoring system.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
5 4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

❖ The merger of Driscoll Hospital and Ada Wilson Center combined acute and long-term care.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
Machine, was similar to standard EEG
equipment in monitoring brain-wave
activity—registered in wavy lines on a
video screen—to see any malfunctions.
But it also was hooked into a more
comprehensive unit that included a
microphone and video camera monitored
by a technician in an adjacent room. The
audio-video equipment showed patients’
physical movements at the same time it
recorded their brain activity on the other
side of the split video screen. In this way,
patients could check into a hospital room
and be observed for up to twenty-four
hours, rather than the one- or two-hour
limit of the standard EEG.
The Ada Wilson Speech Pathology
Department and the Driscoll Radiation
Department joined forces to study
dysphagia in their patients, as difficulty
in swallowing sometimes led to
pneumonia. They made X-ray studies of
sucking, swallowing, biting, and chewing.
Health improved in two years in
more than thirty patients after their
positions or the texture of their food
was changed.
In 1993 the Medical Society joined the
Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce
in working with Woolford & Co., Inc.,
a local advertising and publications
company, to put together a medical services
directory to encourage more local
patient referrals from doctors in Mexico.
In addition to physician and hospital
specialties, it would include information
on travel accommodations.
“We can market ourselves as a medical
destination and stand next to Houston
and San Antonio,” Leah Woolford, president
of the company, said.
On July 1 of that year, the Society
organized a meeting of nearly thirty local
groups to set up a coalition to combat the
growth of teenage pregnancies and sexually
transmitted diseases. Representatives
from schools, hospitals, and such diverse
groups as the Coastal Bend Council
on AIDS to the Catholic Diocese of
Corpus Christi’s Office of Human Life,
attended. Dr. Nina Sisley, director of the
Corpus Christi/Nueces County Health
Department, told them that Nueces
County ranked No. 1 among major counties
in the state in births to teenagers.
It’s not that the students aren’t being
educated, said Rita Potter, CCISD’s
administrative officer for secondary curriculum
development. “The problem is
not the amount of information we give
the kids,” she said. “The problem is
almost in the psychosocial area where
they don’t choose to use the information.”
Three year later the Medical Society
and Driscoll Hospital joined the Junior
League, five local hospitals, and the
Corpus Christi Independent School
District in sponsoring a program to take a
message of sexual abstinence to seven
middle schools. The previous year there
had been 680 pregnancies in the county’s
12,400 teenage girls. Kay Whit, co-chair
of the Junior League’s Postpone Sexual
Involvement Program, said that the program
would teach sixth graders how to
avoid sexually compromising situations
and how to deal with media and peer
pressure to be sexually active.
In March 1995 Driscoll Children’s
Hospital merged with the Ada Wilson
Children’s Center for Rehabilitation.
Dr. J. E. Ted Stibbards, Driscoll president
and chief executive officer, said, “By
merging with a rehabilitation facility that
provides chronic and on-going care, we
create the acute-care setting where a child
who is hurt can get out of the hospital
quicker, can facilitate and hasten their
neurological recovery and ultimately
get home.”
Spohn and Driscoll hospitals formed
another partnership in 1998 when it was
decided that Driscoll would run the
Driscoll Children’s Hospital Neonatal
Nursery at Spohn South. Spohn Hospital
would take care of healthy newborns, but
premature babies and those born needing
more extensive care would be treated in
Driscoll’s intensive care nursery.
C h a p t e r 1 2 ✦ 5 5

This is a partnership that will do a
great deal for Corpus Christi, said T. S.
Scibienski, chairman of Driscoll’s governing
board. The spirits of the founders of
these two hospitals “are looking down
smiling on us for doing this.”
❖ Judy Hayden timed the efforts of Mike Uehlinger as he completed forty-seven crunches in one minute at a
Health Fair at Carroll High School.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
❖ Oscar Davila, director of Acute Coronary Care
at Spohn Hospital, checking the blood pressure of a
motorist as part of the hospital’s ‘American Heart
Month’ drive in 1992.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
for services including eye exams, breast
exams, dental screenings, blood tests, and
medical advice. There were 130 booths in
1994 and 134 in 1995. That year saw a
vegetarian group included. In 1996 the
event drew 6,000 people, even though it
was moved back to Memorial Coliseum
because of a scheduling problem.
That same year saw both Spohn and
the Columbia/HCA Health Care system
open new cardiac-care centers. The
Spohn $28 million Shoreline Pavilion
opened in March, locating all aspects of
cardiac care in one central location.
“We’re able to provide the same services,
but it’s in a much more patient-friendly
and convenient location,” said David
Clark, vice president of Spohn Shoreline,
“plus we have newer and improved
technology that helps to enhance the
patient’s and physician’s satisfaction.”
As medical technology advanced, preventive
care became a most important
consideration. The Society’s annual Health
Fair, which had moved to the American
Bank Center, continued to draw crowds
❖ A Memorial Hospital employee, Humberrto Valderaz, Jr., tries out a new high-tech treadmill.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
5 6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Jane Haas, director of wellness services
at CHRISTUS Spohn Health Care, said
about one-third of patients at CHRISTUS
Spohn hospitals had diabetes-related
problems. “Health fairs provide excellent
opportunities for people to get a free
test,” she said.
❖ Gayle Conway performs a glaucoma test on Rachel Martinez at a Community Health Fair.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
Historically, blood donations faltered
during summer and the holiday season,
but the 1997 fair included a blood drive
that was called the biggest of the year.
At that fair 14,000 tests were performed,
with 1,700 abnormal results reported.
The fair provided $795,309 worth of
free testing. Other local groups joined
the practice by organizing similar events.
The county gained its first schoolbased
mobile clinic in 1998, when one
was acquired by the school district in
Driscoll, the small Nueces County town
that Clara Driscoll’s brother, Robert, Jr.,
had named for himself.
Health fairs also served as a excellent
weapon in the fight against a major local
health problem —diabetes. Death-certificate
information showed that at least
190 persons died of diabetes-related
complications in the county in 1992.
“…Nueces County is in the midst of
a health crisis and the crisis is called
diabetes,” Dr. Jaime Davidson, Texas
Diabetes Control chairman, said.
The American Diabetes Association,
along with the Spohn Health System
and the Corpus Christi Medical Center,
gave medical advice and free examinations
at the Solomon P. Ortiz International
Center on November 5, 2000, as
National Diabetes Awareness Month
began. About 250 participated in
a fund-raising walk along the Bayfront in
the morning, and later another 150
were examined for signs of diabetes.
Approaching the goal of $40,000, the
event raised about $35,000 for the
Diabetes Association.
At that time Carol García, a program
coordinator for diabetes education at the
Corpus Christi Medical Center, said that
about half of the estimated 33,000 people
in Nueces County with diabetes did not
know they had it. “A lot of people who
have it don’t have insurance,” she said.
“A lot of complications can be prevented
if [health fairs] can be available to make
the public aware that they can prevent it
and it can be treated.”
She added that non-Anglos showed a
disproportionately higher number of
cases of diabetes than Anglos. As a
result, she said event organizers tried to
raise awareness of the disease in the
Hispanic community.
❖ Lucy Vacca practicing a blood test at a
Health Fair.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
In 1994 the Medical Society, the Texas
Diabetes Council, and the American
Diabetes Association launched “Operation:
Defeat Diabetes” The program, the first of
its kind in the country, was a yearlong
effort to teach doctors and the public that
diabetes can be controlled.
At a 1997 dinner at the Omni Bayfront
Hotel, the local chapter of the American
Diabetes Association raised $40,000.
Sylvia Chase, a Prime Time Live correspondent
and keynote speaker, told
how she managed a high-profile television
career and at the same time managed
the illness.
C h a p t e r 1 2 ✦ 5 7

❖ Driscoll Hospital opened an orthodontics center in 2005.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DRISCOLL FOUNDATION.
C H A P T E R 1 3
A NEW CENTURY
The war against diabetes continued
into the new century as obesity in adults
and especially in children became a major
concern. Dr. Stephen Ponder, a pediatric
endocrinologist at Driscoll Hospital, medical
correspondent for the Caller-Times,
and a Type 1 Diabetic, wrote a series of
weekly columns dealing with the disease
and emphasizing such dangers of obesity
as diabetes, heart problems, high blood
pressure, and problems sleeping.
Because of the high incidence of the
disease in South Texas, six local agencies
cooperated to hold a diabetes fair at Al
Amin Shrine Center in March 2007. About
100 people attended the event, which was
organized by the Shriners, Nueces County
Hospital District, American Diabetes
Association, Texas Cooperative Extension,
and the Nueces County Commissioners
Court. CHRISTUS Spohn Health System
representatives took part by offering
wellness services, including screenings for
blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol.
They also measured body fat.
Diabetes prevention was also the aim
of a “Know Your Numbers” Health Fair
organized in September by the College
of Nursing and Health Sciences and
kinesiology department at Texas A&M
University-Corpus Christi.
The emphasis on prevention also applied
to other conditions. At the Nueces County
Medical Society and Alliance Health Fair in
2001, Dr. Kirby Barker, a local oncologist,
said regular health screenings can shed light
on hidden problems and open the lines of
communication with a patient.
At the fair that year he offered free
breast screenings. “It’s possible that a
woman doesn’t know how to properly do
a breast self-exam,” he said, “plus, if she
does have questions, it’s a good time to
have those questions answered.”
In 2003 the fair offered a lot of firsts,
according to Dr. Lalitha Janaki, chairwoman.
Daylong classes were offered free
to the public and there was CPR training,
she said. In addition, workers from the
Family Practice Residency Program gave
33 percent more bone marrow tests
than they expected. Overall, Dr. Janaki
said, the health fair was a success, with
2,923 people attending and 184
exhibitors. “We had great attendance
at the classes,” she said. “It’s really
been wonderful.”
5 8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

The 2004 event attracted about 6,000
people, said Paulette Shaw, the Society’s
executive director. In addition to the free
medical tests, she said, a major attraction
was the new Children’s Nutrition and
Physical Activity Expo. The inaugural
expo received a national award from the
American Cancer Society for providing
cancer-prevention programming to atrisk
populations. School athletic physicals
and immunizations were new in
2006. Also new was the Cancer Journey,
which showcased a panel of survivors
and offered breast, prostate, skin, and
oral cancer screenings, along with
treatment information.
As the years went by, the health fair
continued to grow. More than 5,000 people
took advantage of the free services
offered at the 44th annual fair in 2009.
“This represents a healthcare safety net
in our imperfect system,” said Dr. Stefan
Walker, health fair committee chairman.
“Private and public entities working
together shows there is hope that services
are out there for those in despair.
We have to roll up our sleeves and help
people get resources.”
In 2010 about 4,000 people attended.
More than 150 school athletes received
physicals, about 100 families had children
vaccinated, and Coastal Bend Blood Center
collected 71 units of blood. The Texas
Medical Association’s Hard Hats for Little
Heads gave about 200 helmets to young
bicycle riders, and Fit & Free by the Sea,
a weight loss program group, held hourly
workout classes during the morning
Other local groups held similar events.
In February 2001 the Corpus Christi
Medical Center and the Corpus Christi
Athletic Club held a fair at the Heart
Hospital next to Bay Area Hospital. In
May the City-County Health Department
began to hold an annual fair for seniors,
and in March 2002 nine student nurses
from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi took it
upon themselves to hold a fair at the
H-E-B Grocery on Kostoryz Road. Dozens
of customers stopped by to have their
blood pressure and blood sugar checked.
Concern over lack of infrastructure and
possible water contamination brought
dozens of residents of the Tierra Grande
colonia to a free mobile clinic in July 2004.
After reports that dozens of people in the
colonia suffered fevers, diarrhea, and vomiting,
several agencies got together to organize
the health fair, which offered medical
and dental checkups, blood-sugar screenings,
dietary advice, and information about
public-assistance programs for low-income
families. Dr. Hector P. García Founder’s
Chapter of the American GI Forum
brought medical counseling and services to
Nuevo Jerusalem Iglesia, a church at Tierra
Grande on the eastern outskirts of
Petronila. Agencies that helped included
the Coastal Bend Health Education Center,
Catholic Charities, Salvation Army, United
Way, Del Mar College Dental Department,
Corpus Christi Medical Center, and the
South Texas Colonia Initiative.
Three years later about fifteen firstand
second-year medical students from
the University of Texas at San Antonio’s
Frontera de Salud came to a fair at St.
Anthony’s Catholic Church in Robstown
to hold free screenings for diabetes, high
blood pressure, and obesity. For the first
time they made home visits, to about
twenty homes.
❖ Medical advances included robotic surgery.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
“The target of it is for those patients
that don’t have access to (medical) services,”
said Dr. Kirk Smith, the program’s
director. “If they can’t get to us, it’s our
duty to get to them.”
The colonias were also a target for the
Dia de la Mujer Latina—a day for Hispanic
Women—in August 2010 at the Richard
M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds in
Robstown. The purpose of holding it there
was to better reach some of about 20,000
people living in South Texas’ colonias, said
Lionel Lopez, chief operating officer of the
South Texas Colonia Initiative Inc., which
co-sponsored the fair.
Hispanic women typically don’t receive
regular screenings for breast cancer, but
more than eighty had screening at the
event, said Belinda Flores, director of the
South Coastal Area Health Education
Center, a fair sponsor.
“In our culture we take care of the
whole family but not ourselves,” said
Janie López, with the Colonia Initiative.
“We’re here to show mamas they have to
take care of themselves.”
Schools also got into the act. Nearly 100
representatives and agencies from the
Coastal Bend gave health-related information
to employees, students, and parents of
the Corpus Christi Independent School
C h a p t e r 1 3 ✦ 5 9

❖ CHRISTUS Spohn Cancer Center in 2009.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
District at a district wide health fair in
January 2008. The next month students in
Mary E. Anderson’s anatomy and physiology
classes at King High School held a fair
of their own. Students chose a disease or
syndrome and then prepared an interactive
activity on it. Subjects ranged from schizophrenia
and diabetes to cancer treatments
and attention deficit disorder in celebrities.
Not prevention, but cure, was the aim
of the Orthodontics Center opened at
Driscoll Hospital in 2005 and specializing
in cleft lips and palates. The first such center
in South Texas, it enabled patients and
their families to remain with the same dentists
and doctors from diagnosis through
surgery, said Driscoll CEO Rick Merrill.
In September of the previous year, the
hospital had taken a major step forward
with the opening of the Driscoll Children’s
Kidney Center. Six new hemodialysis
machines made it possible for children on
dialysis to be treated in Corpus Christi
instead of going to Houston or San Antonio
or to an adult facility. In 2005 the Children’s
Miracle Network Telethon raised $1.8 million
that was used to buy equipment so
kidney transplants could be performed at
the hospital, and more money for the
program was raised by the 2006 Fiesta de
los Niños. In September 2007 the hospital
received the necessary approval from the
United Network for Organ Sharing and
Medicare, and the first transplant was performed
successfully on 19-year-old Michael
García, who received the kidney from his
26-year-old brother, Edward.
Michael, who had been undergoing
dialysis for about four hours three days a
week, said, “I’ve had kidney problems all
my life. So, I’m pretty excited…”
During this period Driscoll added a convenience
for mothers—Mom’s Place—a
small private room where nursing women—
either hospital employees or mothers of
patients—could go to pump milk.
Five hundred families attended a
Halloween party on October 15, 2005, for
graduates of Driscoll’s Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit. The children had their faces
painted; devoured cupcakes; chased
chickens, ducks, a pig, and a goat in a
mini-petting zoo; bounced on a moonwalk;
and posed for photos on haystacks
and pumpkins. A few months later the
hospital offered middle and high school
students a different kind of experience—
the experience of driving drunk. Using a
Kohn’s Cares for Kids grant, the hospital
acquired a Simulated Impaired Driving
Experience called SIDNE, a battery-powered
vehicle that replicated driving under
the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Prospective medical professionals were
able to get a look at the field. Members of
the Odem High School Future Nurse Club
sometimes shadowed Driscoll Hospital
nurses, and in February 2007 the local
Texas A&M Health Science Center sponsored
a Future Health Care Professionals
Conference at Martin Middle School. With
the use of eight life-sized mannequins,
procedures such as childbirth were
performed. Other conditions shown
included cardiac arrest and heart and
lung activity, and vendors included the
CHRISTUS Spohn Health System, Driscoll
Hospital, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
About 400 middle and high school
students attended.
“This gives them a chance to find out
what it means to be in healthcare,” said
Alicia Dorsey, Office of Communication and
Program Development vice president. “The
conference brings all the students together
and they get to hear from real professionals.”
About 2,000 people attended the
NAACP’s first citywide health fair at the Del
Mar College Small Business Development
Center on December 5, 2009. The association,
American GI Forum, League of United
Latin American Citizens Council No. 1,
and the college collaborated on the event.
Dozens of health tests, advice from doctors,
and H1N1 flu vaccines from the Corpus
Christi-Nueces County Public Health
District were available for free. Rose
Caballero, a registered nurse with the local
chapter of National Association of Hispanic
Nurses, said her team did dozens of blood
pressure checks.
“Many were people with serious health
problems but no resource for care,”
Caballero said. “They appreciated we
were here.”
At an “Ask The Doctor” booth Family and
General Medicine Dr. Juan F. Castro offered
advice to people with abnormal results.
Technology continued to advance in the
2000s. Driscoll Hospital acquired a digitalpicture
system, the first in South Texas, in
2002. X-rays were taken in the usual way,
but the images were loaded onto a computer
network so they could be read with
a password in the hospital in just a few
minutes, saving time, space, and money.
May 17, 2003, marked a special
anniversary for Driscoll Hospital and a
special party to celebrate it. The hospital
had been open for fifty years and had
treated more than one million patients.
6 0 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

About 275 volunteers and a dozen local
businesses and organizations helped with
the backyard celebration, which drew
about 3,000 guests. The hospital also
raised more than $1 million in the
Children’s Miracle Network Telethon during
its anniversary year.
Another special event took place at
Driscoll in November 2003 when a
parade of trail drivers brought Christmas
toys for the children. After a request
from the Corpus Christi Police Officers
Association, the South Texas Trail Drivers
helped organize the fund-raising drive.
Participants, including members of the
Sheriff’s Posse and other law-enforcement
groups, each paid $15 and brought an
unwrapped toy. About 170 people rode
horseback, and a covered wagon, a stagecoach,
and hay-riders in trailers made up
the rest of the parade. The ride raised
more than $3,500.
In addition to celebrations, Driscoll
marked 2003 by announcing plans for a
Children’s Urgent Care Center. At that
time six urgent care centers were
operating in the city, but none specialized
in pediatrics. The Driscoll Foundation
donated twelve acres of land for the
facility, which was located on Saratoga
Boulevard across the street from
CHRISTUS Spohn South. The center,
open evenings seven days a week, treated
minor illnesses and injuries. The hospital
reported that most of the 40,000 patients
seen in the emergency room on Alameda
did not have acute or life-threatening
conditions and that the new center could
care for more than half of them. The next
year Driscoll took over operation of
pediatric and neonatal care at Valley
Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen.
CHRISTUS Spohn recorded a celebration
of its own in December 2004. The
Association of Career and Technical
Education gave the system its National
Award of Merit for its education partnership
with Moody High School’s Health
Sciences Academy. Students in the academy
toured CHRISTUS Spohn hospitals
and participated in clinical rotations.
The system’s education department also
received an award for Outstanding
Service to Career and Technological
Education from the Technology
Education Administrators of Texas. Just
two months later the system announced it
would award twenty $1,000 scholarships
for 2005 graduates to use for college
expense. The next year the system donated
six defibrillators to the Corpus Christi
Emergency Medical Services.
The major concern of physicians and
medical institutions in the first years of the
new century was the continued proliferation
of medical liability lawsuits and the
resulting huge increases in medical liability
insurance. Many doctors, especially
those in high-risk specialties, were leaving
the state or limiting their practices.
In 2002 the Medical Society supported
an April 8 walkout by doctors protesting
frivolous lawsuits. Protesters in white
coats and scrubs marched carrying signs
reading “Stop lawsuit abuse” and “You
can live without your lawyer but can you
live without your doctor?”
An article in the September 11, 2003,
Caller-Times said that half of all Texas
physicians had had lawsuits filed against
them, more than twice the national average,
but 87 percent were dismissed with
❖ Doctors protested frivolous lawsuits by this 2002 walkout.
zero payment. It said that more than
125 local doctors had stopped treating
patients in the previous two years
In December 2004 Driscoll temporarily
diverted major child trauma surgical cases
to CHRISTUS Spohn Memorial because of
a shortage of pediatric surgeons. Hospital
officials said that two surgeons had left
Corpus Christi because of malpractice
concerns and another had retired.
Dr. Evelyn Tobias-Merrill left her family
practice position when her insurance
rates rose 300 percent. “My premium has
been going up every year, and I was
maxed out on what I could afford to pay,”
she said. “I have very very dear patients
and I’m just brokenhearted.”
In 2003 Society members led the fight
for passage of Proposition 12, a state constitutional
amendment to limit non-economic
damage awards in medical liability
lawsuits to $250,000 per doctor and
$500,000 per institution per case.
On August 26, 2003, Governor Rick
Perry spoke at a rally at Driscoll Hospital in
support of the amendment, which had been
introduced by local State Representative
Jaime Capelo. “Frivolous lawsuits are
running healthcare professionals out of
their practices,” Perry said. “This is a patient
crisis, especially in South Texas.”
C h a p t e r 1 3 ✦ 6 1

The proposition narrowly passed in
the statewide vote, but 65 percent of
the voters in Nueces County approved it,
making it a premier achievement of the
local group.
Darren Whitehurst, a spokesman for
the Texas Medical Association, said in
2005 that the long-term benefits would
be fewer lawsuits, more doctors and
insurance carriers in the state, and lower
medical malpractice insurance premiums.
The area got more good news in 2005.
The number of abortions in the county
had dropped 38 percent between 1996
and 2001. Reasons cited included emergency
contraception, a decrease in the
stigma of unwed mothers, and a bill that
required insurance companies to cover
birth control in their policies.
Abortion had always been a heated topic
in the city. In the 1950s and early 1960s
women bleeding to death from illegal abortions
were a common sight in Memorial’s
emergency room. Corpus Christi acquired
the first federally funded chapter of Planned
Parenthood in 1965. However, the subject
remained contentious over the years, and in
late 2008 the City Council voted to remove
the organization from the list of those
receiving city grant money. Because of a
requirement by the national organization
that all chapters provide abortions, the local
❖ The ‘Cyberknife” delivers radiation to tumors without invasive surgery.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHRISTUS SPOHN SYSTEM.
chapter left the national group and changed
its name to Family Planning of the Coastal
Bend on January 1, 2011.
In March 2005 Dr. Lalitha Madhav
Janaki, a radiation oncologist and president
of the Nueces County Medical Society,
joined other doctors from across the state to
travel to Austin and talk to state legislators.
Wearing their white lab coats, they were
taking part in First Tuesdays, a lobbying initiative
by the Texas Medical Association.
One of their goals, Janaki said, was to fend
off any legislation that would expand the
scope of practice of “so-called doctors who
are not M.D.s,” such as optometrists, who
want to perform some simple surgeries.
Dr. Mary Dahlen Peterson, a pediatric
anesthesiologist from Driscoll Children’s
Hospital, said the doctors also talked about
restoring funding to the Children’s Health
Insurance Program (CHIP), which provided
medical care to low-income families.
Dr. Juan F. Castro, a family practitioner
and a member of the Society, also served
on the state level. He was re-elected to a
three-year term on the TMA’s Council on
Medical Education in June 2005. The
council’s role was to research, review, and
create policy for the association.
Corpus Christi citizens and businesses
continued to support Driscoll Hospital. In
March 2007 Jared Perkins, a sophomore in
Moody High School’s Health and Science
Academy, donated 1,100 books to its Half-
Pint Library as his Eagle Scout project.
“I’m trying to inspire others to read,
promote imagination, and help others to
become better people,” he said. “Books
take you away from where you are, just for
a little while and make you feel better.”
The hospital’s Injury Prevention
Department inspected child car seats for
proper installation at Kohl’s Department
Store, and Kohl’s gave Driscoll officials a
$44,000 check to support its injury-prevention
program. In September 2008 fouryear-old
A. J. Rangel raised more than
$1,000 with a rummage sale, a bake sale,
and a lemonade stand and gave the money
to buy a Nintendo Wii system and some
video games for patients to play. Local businesses
donated two additional Wii systems
and some games. Dr. David and Connie
Pearce hosted the Nueces County Medical
Society Alliance’s first evening fundraiser
on April 8, 2010, as the Society continued
to raise money for worthy causes.
In 2005 Driscoll received a federal
grant that enabled it to develop a telemedicine
program. Using wireless technology,
the program linked the hospital with nearly
fifty South Texas rural communities,
providing diagnosis and patient care to
about 100,000 people. “The people of
South Texas will soon lead the world with
the most advanced wireless healthcare
technology for connecting patients, clinicians,
and specialists together to manage
diabetes and asthma,” said Lori Maiolo,
the hospital’s director of telemedicine.
In 2009 the hospital began to offer
lap-band surgery for morbidly obese
teens and young adults, as, officials
believed, the first in Texas to do so. Sam
Carrell, bariatric program coordinator at
the hospital, said her staff was extremely
careful about selecting candidates, as the
surgery was recommended only for those
18 and older. She said that candidates
must also commit to exercise and healthy
eating after the procedure.
The CHRISTUS Spohn System also
recorded advancements. A $10.3-million
6 2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

enovation, financed through donations
and fund-raising events, was added to its
cancer center in 2010. Additions included
a robotic radiosurgery system, the
“Cyberknife,” to deliver radiation to
tumors without invasive surgery, and a da
Vinci Robotic Surgical System, which
enabled surgeons to use three-dimensional
imaging and robotic arms to perform
surgery through tiny incisions.
But problems loomed. Of major concern
to Society members towards the end of the
decade was the plan to build Las Brisas, a
$3 million power plant fueled by petroleum
coke, a byproduct of oil refining, on the
Corpus Christi Inner Harbor. Along with
the Corpus Christi Clean Energy Coalition,
Society members asked the company to use
a technology that would turn the petroleum
coke into gas to significantly reduce
emissions, but the company said the technology
was unreliable and too expensive.
The doctors were not convinced.
Backed by the Texas Medical Association,
in December 2008 the local Society wrote
to the company, “If we permit the construction
of a plant using the ‘technologically
advanced commercially viable technology’
proposed by Las Brisas, we will be
allowing them to pollute our air and our
bay for the sake of a greater profit for the
energy company. Most of us are going to
have a hard time accepting that.”
Although the energy company
answered with a letter saying the opposition
was “out of character for a group of
highly respected physicians who are
known to thoroughly scrutinize complex
issues before forming opinions,” the
Society’s position did not change.
“We gave them an option we felt like
was viable,” said Dr. Wes Stafford, an
allergist and immunologist. “It’s not like
any way, at any time, we would consider
supporting building a petroleum coke
plant like they’re proposing right now.”
Although two judges recommended
denying the project, the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality gave initial
approval. The issue remained undecided in
the summer of 2011.
Medicare payments were another concern.
On April 4, 2010, the Society and the
TMA announced a drive to get one million
signatures on a petition to support changing
the Medicare reimbursement formula
for doctors. Three days earlier Congress
had cut Medicare payments to physicians
by 21 percent. The Society argued that doctors
could not afford to subsidize Medicare.
The future of local hospitals was uncertain
in 2011. Both the nation and the state
faced major economic challenges after the
worst recession since the Great Depression
of the 1930s. Deficits soared, and solutions
proposed in the spring of 2011 targeted
social programs. One motion introduced in
Congress included changing Medicare to a
voucher system. Experts said that the cuts
proposed in payments to doctors, hospitals,
and nursing homes that cared for patients
covered by Medicaid and CHIP could cause
multimillion dollar losses to local hospitals
and cause nursing homes to close.
Even so, there were bright spots in the
Corpus Christi scene. In April 2011
Driscoll unveiled a $2.7 million expansion
and renovation of its Cancer and
Blood Disorders Center. The previous
month the hospital had added a new form
of therapy. The addition did not look
like a medical facility—it looked like a
playground—but every part of it had a
therapeutic purpose. A rope bridge and
cobblestone surfaces challenged balance
and coordination, and physical therapists,
neurologists, and speech pathologists
used other obstacles and toys to help the
young patients. Community donations for
the park totaled more than $140,000 and
more than 400 children used the park
during its first five months of operation.
Dr. Gary Bobele, a pediatric neurologist
who worked with patients as young
as newborns and as old as 21, said such
treatment is invaluable.
“Many of these children are facing
problems they’ll have for the rest of their
lives,” he said. “We want to prepare them
to have the best shot at life they can.”
In the summer of that year the hospital
opened a Toy Tech lending library. Whether
or not disabled children were hospital
patients, they could check out one of about
forty-five specialized toys for two to four
weeks for free.
Costing about $100 each, the toys had
switches, buttons, and other controls that
children with limited use of their hands
and arms could operate.
In September the hospital signed a
new partnership with HALO-Flight that
provided a dedicated helicopter and pilot
to fly children to and from the hospital.
At times when the helicopters were being
used elsewhere, the hospital had been
required to use other forms of transportation.
Driscoll CEO Steve Woerner said the
partnership should make emergency
transports speedier and more dependable.
Jeremy Goodman, the hospital’s
business operations manager, said he
expected fewer out-of-town ground trips
by the hospital’s four ambulances.
“This is going to serve those children
so much better,” he said.
By this time clinics and doctors’ offices
had sprung up all over town, and the
area around CHRISTUS Spohn South on
Saratoga Boulevard was the site of at least
twenty different medical facilities, from
Radiology Associates and Orthopedic
Physical Therapy to Sleep Rite Disorder
Center and Cosmetic Surgery.
This area, in addition to CHRISTUS
Spohn Memorial’s trauma center, Driscoll
Hospital, CHRISTUS Spohn Shoreline and
other facilities in the city made Corpus
Christi truly a medical center for all of
South Texas.
❖ CHRISTUS Spohn Shoreline stands as a symbol
of the healthcare available in the Coastal Bend.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES.
C h a p t e r 1 3 ✦ 6 3

SOURCES
Bernwanger, Dr. Damon C.
Briscoe, Eugenia, City by the Sea, A History of Corpus Christi, Texas, 1519-1875.
Coastal Bend Medicine, Centennial Edition, September/October 2004.
Command History, Naval Hospital Corpus Christi, 2005.
Command History, Naval Hospital Corpus Christi, 2006.
Command History, Naval Hospital Corpus Christi, 2007.
Command History, Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi, 2008.
Concklin, Dr. Charles Lewis.
_____________________, Pediatrics in Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi Caller, Centennial Issue, 1883-1983
Corpus Christi Caller-Times Archives
Driscoll Children’s Hospital Timeline
Givens, Murphy, “The Fast and the Furious…in the Early 1900s, Caller-Times. February 16, 2011
_____________________, “What are the Canadian connections to Corpus Christi,” Caller-Times, March 9, 2011
Handbook of Texas
“Hector P. Garcia,” http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_P._Garcia
History of Nueces County, 1937, WPA)
“History of Spohn Hospital,” http://www.christusspohn.org/body.cfm?id=140
Holt, Dr. Everett L. “Bud”
Lea, Tom, The King Ranch
Lewis, Dr. Joe A., Pathology Services for the Coastal Bend
Madalin, Dr. Herbert
Madalin, Mrs. Sally
McCampbell, Coleman, Texas Seaport
“Medicine: Polio Epidemic, Time, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0.9171.775161.00.html
August 14, 1944
Sutherland, Mary A., The Story of Corpus Christi
“Texas Catholic Historian”, Winter 210-211
Walraven, Bill, Corpus Christi, History of a Texas Seaport
Walraven, Bill and Marjorie, Gift of the Wind
6 4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

SHARING THE HERITAGE
H i s t o r i c p r o f i l e s o f p h y s i c i a n s , m e d i c a l f a c i l i t i e s ,
b u s i n e s s e s , o r g a n i z a t i o n s , a n d f a m i l i e s t h a t
h a v e c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e d e v e l o p m e n t a n d
p r a c t i c e o f m e d i c i n e i n N u e c e s C o u n t y
CHRISTUS Spohn Health System .......................................................6 6
Neonatology Consultants of Corpus Christi .........................................7 0
Coastal Bend Psychiatric Associates ...................................................7 2
A BETTER YOU Cosmetic Surgery Center ...........................................7 4
American Bank ...............................................................................7 6
South Padre Island Pediatric Center ..................................................7 7
Coastal Bend Blood Bank ..................................................................7 8
Texas Medical Liability Tr ust ............................................................7 9
Driscoll Children’s Health Plan .........................................................8 0
Driscoll Children’s Hospital ..............................................................8 1
Shea Physical Therapy .....................................................................8 2
Thomas-Spann Clinic .......................................................................8 3
Nueces County Medical Society .........................................................8 4
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 6 5

CHRISTUS SPOHN HEALTH SYSTEM
Growth was steady under the Sisters’ direction,
and it was not long before the sanitarium could no
longer accommodate all those seeking medical
attention. In 1906 an annex was built; and by
1915, more than 1,500 patients were treated.
The sanitarium continued its mission of
mercy until September 14, 1919, when a devastating
hurricane hit the Gulf Coast sweeping
away most of the building and four individuals.
Among the lives lost was that of Sister M. Thias,
as she tried to reach a paralyzed patient.
❖
Above: The Spohn Sanitarium opened
on North Beach in 1905, but was
destroyed by a devastating hurricane
in 1919.
Right: A radiology technician at
Memorial demonstrates an early
mammography machine.
Below: CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital
Corpus Christi-South was built in
1994 as a full-service hospital that
includes superior women’s services.
In 1868, when Dr. Arthur Spohn came to
the Texas Gulf Coast, physicians treated
patients in their homes and operated on their
dining room tables. As the city’s population
grew to 7,000, Dr. Spohn saw the need for
a hospital. Together, with his colleagues and
the help of his wife, Sarah Josephine Kenedy,
he rallied a group of residents to raise money
to construct the first hospital in Corpus Christi.
Henrietta King, Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Kenedy
and others, met their goal with about $7,000
to build a hospital.
As the hospital was under construction,
Dr. Spohn approached the Sisters of Charity of
the Incarnate Word of San Antonio about
operating the facility. Eager to help, the Sisters
mortgaged the Motherhouse for $5,000, and
contributed additional funds required to
complete the facility. Arriving via horse-drawn
carriage, the nuns, opened the doors of the new
hospital on North Beach on July 26, 1905, and
named it Spohn Sanitarium in honor of the
founding physician. Dr. Spohn and Dr. Alfred
George Haney were the hospital’s first doctors.
After the hospital was destroyed, the Sisters
cared for patients in John G. Kenedy, Sr.’s, home.
Dr. Spohn, the Sisters, and the community rallied
again to raise funds to rebuild. Mrs. King, widow
of Captain King of the famous King Ranch donated
five acres overlooking Corpus Christi Bay for
the hospital’s new location. Dedicated in 1923,
it remains the location of CHRISTUS Spohn
Hospital Corpus Christi-Shoreline.
The hospital prospered and
the Sisters were relentless in
their quest to provide the highest
standards of care along with the
latest technology for patients.
Growth was inevitable, and the
hospital expanded to fifty beds in
1937. In 1957, a $2 million annex
was built. WWII saw a shortage
of nurses; and, to address the
problem, the Sisters opened the
James R. Dougherty, Jr., School of
6 6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Nursing in 1954. It was named in honor of the
Beeville hero who was killed in action in
Germany in 1944. In 1961 a five-story, airconditioned
annex was completed, bringing
beds to 300.
As Spohn built bridges to the world of commerce,
it remained focused on the spiritual
dimension of healthcare, and dedicated the Rob
Welder Memorial Chapel within the hospital for
all those who sought spiritual comfort. In the
late 1970s, another five stories had been added,
and a $9 million, expansion completed. By
1980, Spohn was a ten story, 470-bed hospital
with 350 staff physicians, and 1,200 employees.
In 1985, Spohn Health System answered a
call for assistance and acquired Kleberg County
Hospital in Kingsville; and two years later, it
assumed operation of Memorial Medical Center
in a lease agreement with the Nueces County
Hospital District. In 1996 the System acquired
the fledgling Bee County Hospital bringing
healthcare close to home for residents in Live
Oak and Bee County.
In 1999 the Sisters of Charity of the
Incarnate Word of San Antonio and the Sisters
of Charity of the Incarnate Word of Houston,
combined their health ministries under the
name CHRISTUS Health, making it the largest
Catholic healthcare system in the nation.
Eventually, Spohn Health System became
CHRISTUS Spohn Health System. That same
year, a new hospital in Alice, Texas, was opened
under the new “CHRISTUS” banner.
CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-
Shoreline is the region’s only accredited
advanced primary stroke center, recognized by
the American Heart Association and the Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals.
The CHRISTUS Spohn Cancer Center is recognized
by the American College of Surgeons
Commission on Cancer, and is the only nationally
recognized program in the region.
CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-
Memorial is the only Level II Trauma Center
south of Austin with a full team of specialists
supporting a twelve county region caring for
critically injured patients. Memorial is also
recognized as a teaching facility for the next
generation of Family Practice and Emergency
Physicians, as well as hundreds of nurses,
technicians, and chaplains.
CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-
South is the premier facility for women, providing
services for women in all stages of life. It is
home to a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit, enhancing birthing services by allowing
premature babies and newborns with special
needs to remain close to their recovering
mothers. Each of the hospitals in Alice,
Beeville, and Kingsville provide quality acute
care in a family-friendly setting close to home.
The Sister’s determination to extend the healing
ministry of Jesus Christ has inspired them
to keep pace with the ever-changing delivery
of healthcare, innovative diagnostics, and
technological advances. CHRISTUS Spohn has
developed into the primary provider of cardiac
services in South Texas and has logged a number
of “firsts” in the treatment of heart disease. In the
early 1970s open heart surgeries were primarily
performed in major cities and teaching hospitals.
Dr. Hebert Madalin and Dr. James Gabbard had
already begun perfecting their technique in the
❖
Above: The Critical Care Center is the
latest state-of the-art facility added to
CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus
Christi-Shoreline.
Below: CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital
Corpus Christi-Memorial is the
region Level II Trauma Center.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 6 7

❖
The Varin iX or Linear Accelerator,
located in the CHRISTUS Spohn
Cancer Center and is used to treat a
variety of cancer diagnosis.
basement of Driscoll Children’s Hospital and
performed their first surgery, a mitral commisurtomy,
in a child’s heart. The first adult
open heart surgery was performed at Spohn
Shoreline by the two doctors in 1974.
Angioplasty is a process used to open a
blockage in the artery and was first performed
at Spohn Shoreline. Several years later, Spohn
provided the technical support and resources to
be the first hospital to embark on thrombotic
therapy utilizing streptokinase to dissolve
blood clots and was a dual pioneer in the
insertion of dual chamber pacemakers.
By 1984, more than 300 coronary bypasses
were performed at Spohn Shoreline and since
then, more than 15,000 life-saving surgeries
and cardiac procedures have been performed
at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-
Shoreline. Working together with the cardiac
specialists who practice at CHRISTUS Spohn,
the System continues to keep pace with treatment
options and new equipment.
The early cardiac technique reopened the
arteries, but it did not guarantee they would
remain open. The invention of the cardiovascular
stent is one of the most important advancements
in the treatment of heart patients. A
catheter is inserted into a patient’s artery
through an opening in the groin to open blockages.
Then, a small balloon on the end of the
catheter is inflated, expanding the stent and
depositing it in the artery to keep it open.
Angioplasty (the word itself means to mold
the artery) was first performed in 1979 to
open a significant blockage in the heart artery.
In 1993 this procedure was performed at
Spohn Hospital and has led to a full range of
percutaneous interventions (PCI). These interventions
are performed in the CHRISTUS Spohn
Pavilion, a $50 million expansion at Shoreline
was built to house the CHRISTUS Spohn Heart
Network. The procedure has expanded the
treatment of coronary heart disease, and is now
used as a primary and complimentary measure
6 8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

For its commitment to quality and
safety, Spohn Shoreline was named
among the top 100 hospitals for quality;
and, is the regions only accredited
advanced primary stroke center. The
hospital is recognized by the American
Heart Association (AHA) and the
Joint Commission. The CHRISTUS
Spohn Heart Network features a
nationally accredited Pain Center and
three nationally certified cardiac
rehabilitation centers—Alice, Kingsville
and Shoreline. These national accreditations
and recognition by the Joint
Commission, AHA, and others,
ensure South Texans will receive the
most advanced cardiac care at
CHRISTUS Spohn.
In 2010, CHRISTUS Spohn provided
more than $64.3 million in community
benefits, including charity
care, community services, and reimbursed
costs of treating Medicare
patients. It is all part of its mission:
To extend the healing ministry of
Jesus Christ to all.
❖
Above and below: The Cardiac
Catherization Laboratory is located in
the new Critical Care Tower at
CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus
Christi-Shoreline.
to surgery to provide revascularization
of the coronary vasculature. This interventional
effort is also accompanied
with various efforts to remove the
blockage atherectomy/Rotablator). In
some cases the entire blockage can
be opened.
More than 4,000 procedures are
performed in the Shoreline Cardiac
Catherization Laboratory each year,
placing it as one of the primary
hospitals in the United States. In
addition to intervention in the coronary
vasculature (hard arteries),
interventional techniques are utilized
for all aspects of atherosclerotic
cardiac disease including carotid
stenosis, peripheral arterial disease
and abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Additionally, CHRISTUS Spohn also
supports a very active electrophysiology
lab to evaluate and treat heart
rhythm disorders with the placement
of pacemakers and defibrillators.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 6 9

NEONATOLOGY
CONSULTANTS
OF CORPUS
CHRISTI
It is the hope of every parent to have their
newborn declared healthy; however, to have a
doctor proficiently trained in the care of
newborns readily available can increase a
parent’s peace of mind exponentially. It is
therefore the mission of the doctors at
Neonatology Consultants of Corpus Christi to
provide optimum care to all newborns not only
in Corpus Christi but to other outlying areas in
South Texas.
The need for a neonatologist was acute
during the time when Dr. Alfonso Prado moved
to Corpus Christi in 1976 and joined the staff of
Driscoll Children’s Hospital. Infant mortality
was very high with seventeen out of one
thousand newborns dying and babies that
weighed less than three pounds at birth were
unable to survive. He became the founding
Medical Director of the Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit (NICU). Dr. Julio Godoy joined the
7 0 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

staff one year later after serving his residency
at Driscoll. Both doctors, anticipating the need
to provide the highest quality care for all
newborns, went on to establish Neonatology
Consultants of Corpus Christi in 1978. Their
combined efforts reduced infant mortality to
four per one thousand births. Because of their
vigilance to provide the best possible treatment
for babies, they became an integral part in the
expansion of neonatal services provided at
Driscoll Children’s Hospital, whereby giving
rise to the creation of Neonatology Intensive
Care Units or NICU’s as they are more
commonly referred not only at Driscoll but
to other hospitals as well. These
units improved the critical care of
sick newborns.
After serving his residency at Driscoll,
Dr. Peter Serrao joined Drs. Prado and
Godoy in 1985. During this time they
began implementing Indomethacin for
the treatment of Patent Ductus Arteriosus
as well as incorporating the use of
Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP)
to aid breathing, thus decreasing the
need for ventilators. Joining this alliance
in 1990 is Dr. Miguel Deleon. He also
served his residency at Driscoll and is
currently the Medical Director of the
Driscoll NICU, and the Bay Area Medical
Center NICU. He along with Dr. Serrao
began using high frequency ventilators,
oscillators, and nitric oxide in the care of
babies with pulmonary hypertension.
In addition to these innovative treatments,
they implemented the use of percutaneous
central lines and the Neonatal
Resuscitation Program. All of the doctors
became part of the Vermont Oxford
trials, which enabled them to compare
their outcomes with that of national
and international institutions. Present day
treatments including Avastin therapy for
retinopathy of prematurity and synchronized
ventilation help to save newborn babies
weighing less than one pound at birth.
With the ever increasing need to treat both ill
and well newborns, Neonatology Consultants
welcomed Dr. Emil Milano into their practice.
Dr. Milano, who also served his residency
at DCH, has proved himself a tour de force
along with the other doctors at Neonatology
Consultants helping to establish a neonatal
intensive care unit at both the Bay Area Medical
Center and Spohn South Hospital. He is Medical
Director of Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in
Edinburg, Texas.
Dr. Dynio Honrubia joined the practice when
there was a burgeoning need for quality
healthcare for infants born with serious health
issues. He served his residency at UCLA Cedar
Sinai Medical Center. Together, Drs. Milano
and Honrubia have extended the reach of
Neonatology Consultants of Corpus Christi to
Edinburg at the Doctors Hospital at Renaissance.
Neonatology Consultants has grown from
one neonatologist and a ten bed Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit, to four units with a total
capacity of one hundred beds. Today there are
seven board certified neonatologists along with
the dedicated support of six administrative
assistants and our practice continues to expand.
This expansion will continue as the community
grows and the needs of the newborns continue
to evolve.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 7 1

COASTAL BEND
PSYCHIATRIC
ASSOCIATES
On a cold, wintry afternoon in 1985,
Dr. Carlos Estrada was driving home after
spending the morning assisting Dr. Karl
Hirshberg and Dr. Isaac Ramsey at the Topeka
Institute for Psychoanalysis. He had come to
Kansas from his native Guatemala twenty-one
years earlier to begin the study of psychology
under the tutelage of Dr. Karl Menninger of the
Menninger Foundation.
He had formed a strong friendship with,
and great respect for Dr. Karl Menninger
and the managing ability of Dr. Haines,
Director of Institutions.
Dr. Estrada felt accomplished and fulfilled,
having completed training in all areas offered
by the Menninger Foundation, and serving in
many capacities at in the Topeka area. “I was
planning a career in education, psychiatric
7 2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

administration, treatment, and consultation,”
he says. “I arrived home and our Saturday
afternoon ritual of watching Tarzan movies on
television with my family when I received a call
and job offer.
“I was surprised to hear from a friend and
classmate offering me a job in Corpus Christi.
My daughters saw it as an upward move and
thought it would help them go to college. After
discussion with my family, I called back and
accepted the position.”
Because there were no other psychiatrists in
town who were willing to join the venture,
the decision changed his career and changed
the psychiatric history in Corpus Christi. He
commuted from Topeka to Corpus Christi in
1985, and opened Bayview Hospital in 1986.
He says he was surprised that he left a city of
75,000 with more than eighty psychiatrists,
and came to a city of 250,000 people with only
six psychiatrists.
With his colleague, Dr. Estrada recruited
two other psychiatrists from the Menninger
Foundation and five nurses. The hospital was
an immediate success, both financially and in
caring for children and adolescents, improving
the service for adults in psychiatry and
chemical dependency.
Years later, he received an offer for a joint
venture to develop a corporation with Charter
Hospital and a group of psychiatrists. With
the assistance of his friend and colleague,
Dr. Robert McClung, he accepted the position
of Medical Director at Charter, leaving Bayview.
That is when he also started Coastal Bend
Psychiatric Association, having a capitation
contract, supplying the psychiatric and counseling
services, while Charter provided the
inpatient and partial hospitalization services.
He had survived four previous revolutions in
psychiatry: the moral treatment, the psychological
treatment, the pharmacologic treatment,
and the mental health revolution, but admits to
not being prepared to survive the managed care
revolution that was on the horizon.
In December 1999, Charter and Bayview
simultaneously announced they were closing
operations. “I remember Dr. McClung asking,
‘How are we going to treat our patients?’
My response was, ‘Let’s buy a hospital and run
it.’ We now have four hospital buildings in the
city that are empty and for sale.
“With the assistance of
Sharon Meadors, we were
able to obtain the financial
help of James Whatley, a
benefactor for psychiatric
and chemical dependency
patients. I invited the local
psychiatric community to
join us, and Dr. May, who
was Director and Medical
Director of the Bayview
Hospital at the time. He was
the only psychiatrist to join
Dr. McClung and me.”
They purchased the old
Bayview Hospital that had
become the Columbia office
buildings and, with the
altruistic help of employees
of both hospitals that had
closed, built the new Padre
Behavioral Hospital. He
says it was a work of love
and heart and mind. And
none accepted pay for over
three months. “We were
lucky to have a benefactor-financier, and to
acquire loans from the Small Business
Administration. That allowed us to remodel
and recondition Bayview Hospital so it would
meet new hospital standards.” They opened the
facility in April 2000.
For Estrada, it was a “dream come true.” He
had fulfilled his dream of developing a hospital
directed by the psychiatrist mentality to help
people, provide needed services, and to fulfill
the psychiatric community of nurses, therapists,
counselors, activity therapists, and psychiatrists.
❖
After twenty-six years of starting
at Bayview Hospital in 1985 as its
medical director and after Bayview
Hospital has seen five different
ownerships, Dr. Estrada has remained
and continues as its medical director.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 7 3

A BETTER YOU
COSMETIC
SURGERY
CENTER
❖
Above: Dr. Gentile speaking at the
Aesthetic Congress in Monaco.
Below: Dr. Gentile with his mother
and wife, Cathy.
Dr. Herve` Gentile is a third generation
Italian, who was born in
Kansas and spent his early years in
Maryland; ending up in Italy where
his parents retired.
“You cannot spend time in Italy
without being influenced by the
country’s art. A knowledge of art
enables a plastic surgeon to better
understand human anatomy, especially
the face,” he says. It triggered
his fascination with the finer art of
plastic surgery. The country’s artistic
bent influenced the doctor who,
while living there, began sculpting
and painting.
Dr. Gentile completed residencies
in general surgery, ear-nose-throat/head-andneck
surgery, plastic surgery and a fellowship
in facial plastic surgery. He currently holds a
teaching position as Clinical Assistant Professor
of Plastic Surgery at the Georgia Health Sciences
University (Medical College of Georgia).
The doctor’s professional background
includes service in the United States Air Force,
flying the F-4 Phantom. This experience also
contributed towards the formation of the
necessary discipline and quick decision ability
required of Dr. Gentile to complete his
residency training and become a complete,
well-rounded plastic surgeon.
While in the military, Dr. Gentile became
acquainted with Corpus Christi and fell in love
with the city. That later prompted his decision
to start his practice in Nueces County. While
his practice is limited to cosmetic surgery, for
years, he donated a portion of his time to the
local children’s hospital, performing reconstruction
of cleft lips and other congenital
deformities on infants and children. Nothing is
more gratifying, he says, than being able to
restore a more normal function to a child or a
baby, and see his smile years later.
In 1998, when Dr. Gentile decided to build
A BETTER YOU Cosmetic Surgery Center in
Corpus Christi, he put his artistic abilities to
work and designed a modern, private, and
environmentally friendly complex located on
Ocean Drive, which winds along the shoreline
of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1999, A BETTER YOU
Cosmetic Center became the first ambulatory
in-office surgery center to be accredited in
South Texas. The surgery suite features the
most current technology available. It provides
for patient comfort, convenience, and privacy
with all the safety features of a hospital, but
without the added expense and inconvenience
of a hospital. It offers the entire range of aesthetic
surgical procedures and cosmetic medical
treatments such as fat transfer, botox, peels,
and laser liposuction. It was the first center to
introduce laser hair removal in 1998 in South
Texas. In the beginning, it was inundated by
telephone calls from all over the country.
Dr. Gentile is triple board certified by the
American Board of Plastic Surgery, the American
Board of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery
and the American Board of Facial Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgery. He is a member of the
American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery,
7 4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the
International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery,
and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
and the American Academy of Facial Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgery, among others.
Dr. Gentile has been consulted and featured
on television and radio, in books and newspapers.
He is also an invited speaker on cosmetic
surgery internationally, and was elected by
his peers for inclusion in the Best Doctors in
America ® from 2009-2012 in the subspecialty
of Plastic Surgery/Body Cosmetic Surgery and
Plastic Surgery/Facial Aesthetic Surgery. To be
recognized as one of the Best Doctors in
America ® a doctor must earn high marks for
clinical ability from his/her peers. Only the
top three to five percent of all U.S. doctors is
deemed deserving and is voted to be included
on the Best Doctor.
Dr. Gentile says the greatest satisfaction in
his life is his family, and practice. The practice
provides him with pleasure in being able to
make people more attractive. “At the end of
the day I go home to hugs from my wife Cathy
and youngest son Enzo…that gives my life
true meaning.”
❖
Above: The office with the surgery
center on Ocean Drive in Corpus
Christi, Texas.
Below: The Gentiles in the Dolomites.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 7 5

AMERICAN BANK
American Bank could easily be called the
catalyst to helping individuals and businesses
succeed in the Corpus Christi area. The bank’s
“Yes, we can” service philosophy is at the
heart of all it does for customers throughout
the Coastal Bend and beyond. Built on a
commitment of shared responsibility and
investment in the communities it serves,
American Bank was founded by a group of
Corpus Christi business leaders, and opened
on August 24, 1970.
Still locally-owned and independent,
American Bank offers a full range of business
and personal financial services, specializing
in providing lines of credit, equipment and
building loans, along with all other business
financing needs. The bank is a committed
partner that helps those in the medical
community serve their patients and also
achieve successful business results.
The bank’s Private Banking department is
widely recognized as the area’s leading financial
resource for physicians and others in the
medical community. Their Private Bankers
coordinate a team of experts for loans,
deposit and retirement accounts, cash/treasury
management, insurance, investments, and
trust/asset management to provide
a comprehensive approach for
customers’ business and personal
financial needs. They are committed
to providing the ultimate in
personalized service and are “on call”
to respond to all of their customers’
financial requests. As a result,
Private Banking customers become
more efficient and are able to devote more of
their time to growing their business, spending
time with family or simply enjoying life.
American Bank’s insurance affiliate, Borden
Insurance, offers property and casualty
insurance services for both consumer and
commercial purposes. And they offer human
resource strategies and benefits programs for
professional offices and other businesses of
all sizes.
Full-service, non-bank investments are
available through American Investment Services,
a division of Herndon Plant Oakley, Ltd.,
member FINRA/SIPC.
In the forty years since opening, American
Bank has grown to be the largest independent
bank in the area, with approximately 250
employees covering seven locations in
Corpus Christi; single locations in Port
Aransas, Rockport, Goliad and Victoria; and
two offices in the Austin area. The bank
also operates a network of twenty-one ATMs.
As of March 31, 2011, assets totaled over
$975 million.
Member FDIC. Trust and American Investment
Services investment products: not FDIC insured,
no bank guarantee, may lose value.
7 6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

There is nothing quite like declaring a
newborn “healthy,” then, watching that child
grow into a healthy adult, say Drs. Mulukulta
Ramakrishna and Jorge S. Rodriguez of the
South Padre Island Pediatric Center (SPID).
According to the two, “We experience every
aspect of a child’s healthcare needs such as
immunizations, lab testing, pulmonary function
testing, placement of cast, minor surgical
procedures, hearing and vision testing and
nutritional needs from newborns to adolescents.
Hopefully, the healthy
habits we instill in them at an
early age will follow them
throughout life,” they add.
Dr. Ramakrishna and Dr. O’Keefe
were founding doctors of the
South Padre Island Pediatric Center
in 1981. Dr. Rodriguez joined
in 1982; Former physicians were
Dr. Fe Pizzaro, Dr. Jain Tong,
Dr. Wesley Jakowboski and
Dr. Maria Perez-Johnson.
SPID’s office in Corpus Christi
was built 1981, Aransas Pass
branch was started on 1987,
Sinton 1994, Mathis 1999, and
Kingsville 2008.
SPID physicians and staff are
committed to providing appropriate
high-quality, cost-effective
healthcare to patients, in a
courteous and professional manner.
Their mission is to ensure
that high quality pediatric
healthcare is accessible to all
families in Coastal Bend with
various offices.
SPID participates in the
Nueces County Health Fair,
Reach Out & Read Program, SV
Temple Health Fair and other
numerous community activities.
SPID diagnosed the first bubble
boy in Corpus Christi, and transferred
him for bone marrow transplant
in Minneapolis. Another
child with the problem was transferred
to Texas Children’s Hospital
(TCH) because, by then, TCH was
performing this procedure.
Many Driscoll Hospital residents who have
trained at SPID now practice pediatrics
and pediatric specialties throughout the
United States.
Dr. Ramakrishna serves on many boards
including the Children’s Health Care Insurance
Program and Medicaid Region II and Coastal
Bend Emergency Services. He is a former board
member, Chief of Staff, and Chief of Pediatrics
at Driscoll Hospital. Dr Rodriguez was former
Chief of Pediatrics at Driscoll Hospital.
SOUTH PADRE
ISLAND
PEDIATRIC
CENTER
❖
Below: Dr. Mulukulta Ramakrishna.
Bottom: Dr. Jorge S. Rodriguez.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 7 7

COASTAL BEND
BLOOD CENTER
❖
Clockwise, starting from the top:
Coastal Bend Blood Center, 209 North
Padre Island Drive, Corpus Christi.
John Hardy Robertson,
blood recipient.
Coastal Bend Blood Center’s first
blood donor in 1970.
Across the Coastal Bend, over 32,000 citizens
are everyday heroes, donating blood in
support of the Coastal Bend Blood Center each
year. In partnership with these community
donors, the Blood Center’s mission is to provide
a safe supply of blood and related services
to hospitals and patients of the Coastal Bend.
The Blood Center supplies thirteen medical
facilities across ten counties: Aransas, Bee,
Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Live Oak,
Nueces, Refugio and San Patricio.
In 1969, Dr. Hans Heymann,
Nueces County Medical Society
president, recognized the need
for a community blood bank to
safely provide blood for area hospitals.
Subsequently, a 501 (c) (3)
organization, originally known
as the Nueces County Medical
Society-Community Blood Bank,
was formed.
An initial loan of $25,000
enabled the facility to incorporate
October 31, 1969. The loan was quickly repaid,
and the Blood Center received its first donor
June 15, 1970. The blood bank became “mobile”
in late 1970 with an inaugural blood drive at
Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. Volunteers
donated on the center’s first “bloodmobile,” a
three-bed Winnebago.
Many regulatory and quality control changes
evolved throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
During the first decade of the new millennium,
the volunteer Board of Trustees changed the
name to Coastal Bend Blood Center to better
reflect the service area. The center also began
an Apheresis program, which allows specific
blood components to be targeted and collected
from a single donor.
Thanks to support from its donor heroes, the
Coastal Bend Blood Center has grown over the
past 42 years, from 8 employees in 1970 to about
80 in 2011. The center now features 6 mobile
units and 2 mini set-ups and counts on 644 donor
clubs that host more than 1,600 blood drives each
year. The Blood Center continuously strives for
higher goals, which include becoming the most
efficient small blood center in the nation and
excelling in meeting industry standards.
7 8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

In the mid-1970s, escalating medical
malpractice claims and lawsuits threatened the
careers of Texas physicians; they found it
increasingly difficult to find and purchase
affordable medical malpractice insurance.
To confront this issue, physician members
of the Texas Medical Association (TMA) and
other interested parties combined resources to
study the problem and develop a solution. On
June 3, 1978, Texas Medical Liability Trust
(TMLT) was created under the Texas Insurance
Code (Section 31.13 of HB1048) to provide
TMA-member physicians with a stable
source of medical liability insurance. Today,
TMLT offers medical liability insurance,
claims management and defense, risk
management education, and continuing
medical education (CME) to Texas physicians.
TMLT has continued to grow and to
become the preferred insurer for the Texas
medical community, acting as a “watchdog” to
reduce the number of non-meritorious claims
and lawsuits.
However, in the late 1990s, rising claims
frequency and severity again threatened Texas
physicians. One out of five faced a claim or
lawsuit. A new crisis was brewing.
By January 2002, the TMLT, TMA, THA,
and 200 other members, formed the Texas
Alliance for Patient Access (TAPA) to fight
for medical liability reform in the 2003
legislative session. Tort reform was passed,
putting a cap on non-economic damages of
$250,000 for any combination of three
defendants, plus possible addition of up to two
hospitals and/or nursing homes at $250,000
each for a total of $750,000.
TAPA soon faced a new battle to protect
the 2003 tort reforms. They sought to
amend the Texas constitution regarding noneconomic
caps. Campaigns were organized to
gain public support. Texas physicians joined
together and marched in their white coats
to the steps of the state capitol. The result
was the most sweeping tort reform ever
achieved in the United States in which a
state constitutional amendment protects the
non-economic damage caps. Texas tort
reform became the model on which other states
facing similar problems based their own tort
reform efforts.
TEXAS MEDICAL LIABILITY TRUST
❖
Above: The 1980 Board of Governors.
Front row (from left to right): Walter
A. Brooks, MD; Richard L. Vardy,
MD; Milton V. Davis, MD; and
Randolph C. Zuber, MD. Back row
(from left to right): E. Donald Webb,
MD; Presley Chalmers, MD; and
C. Kenneth Landrum, MD. Not
pictured: Robert G. Thumwood, MD;
Richard A. Morton, Jr., MD.
Left: The TMLT tort reform team with
Senator Joe Nixon in 2003. Shown
are (from left to right): Bob R. Fields;
Howard R. Marcus, MD; Frank
Galitski; Senator Joe Nixon; Theo van
Eeten; and W. Thomas Cotton.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 7 9

DRISCOLL
CHILDREN’S
HEALTH PLAN
❖
Above: This picture, taken in 1904,
depicts Clara Driscoll at the age of
twenty-three. Forty-one years later
she would establish the Driscoll
Foundation that would later fund the
establishment of Driscoll Children’s
Health Plan.
Below: With forty-eight employees,
DCHP is the only locally founded
health plan in the Nueces Service
Delivery Area.
A subsidiary of Driscoll Children’s Hospital;
Driscoll Children’s Health Plan (DCHP), a nonprofit,
community-based health insurance plan
has served the children of South Texas for
almost fifteen years.
DCHP was originally developed and funded
through the Driscoll Foundation and licensed
by the Texas Department of Insurance as a
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in
1998. When the state decided to implement the
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP),
DCHP responded to the proposal and was the
only HMO awarded the contract in the fifteencounty
Nueces Service Delivery Area. Since the
award in May 2000, DCHP membership has
grown from three members in the first month to
more than 21,000 members in mid-2002. Due
to 2003 legislative cuts, that number was
reduced to a low of 7,580 members in 2007.
Today membership includes not only CHIP, at
greater than 12,000 members, but also
Medicaid/STAR membership, which is more
than 44,000. Two of the three original members
remain on the health plan today, the third aged
out of the plan.
Victor Gonzales became the first CEO, and
Richard Taylor, MD, the first medical director.
Charles Carroll succeeded Gonzales in 1999.
Mary Dale Peterson, MD, became CEO in 2008,
and is the current CEO for the health plan.
Since that time, the DCHP staff has grown from
five employees to 48.
Through various grants and community
programs, DCHP has been able to impact the
health of the community by reducing the
number of premature births through nutritional
counseling and pregnancy education, and also
reducing dental surgeries by preventing tooth
caries in the pediatric population.
DCHP continues to provide efficient, costeffective
care through a dedicated and
compassionate healthcare team; recognizing
and promoting the worth and dignity of each
member being served, as well as those serving.
As always, DCHP is there for the children, by
providing primary and specialty care, within
and even outside of Texas.
8 0 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

DRISCOLL
CHILDREN’S
HOSPITAL
Driscoll Children’s Hospital, located on the
Gulf Coast of Corpus Christi, serves as a beacon
of light for children of South Texas. Made
possible nearly 60 years ago by the generosity
and vision of its founder, Clara Driscoll, it
became the first free-standing children’s hospital
in South Texas when it opened its doors in 1953.
What began as a 25-bed hospital serving five
South Texas counties has become a 189-bed
tertiary care regional referral center offering
complex and comprehensive medical and
surgical services to the pediatric population in
31 South Texas counties covering 33,000 square
miles. Driscoll Children’s Hospital is known for:
• An oncology program that is part of the
Children’s Oncology Group, a world premier
pediatric cancer research collaborative.
• A cardiology program with electrophysiology
services and hybrid pediatric cardiac/vascular
bi-plane catheterization laboratory with a
telemedicine component.
• The first Emergency Services Department
especially for children that sees more than
40,000 patients annually.
• A renal transplantation program, making it
the first hospital in South Texas to perform a
kidney transplant.
• A level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that
has cared for more than 20,000 critically ill
and premature infants.
• A Pediatric Intensive Care Unit that offers
state-of-the-art technologies for critically ill
patients such as extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation (ECMO).
• Specialty centers and clinics in Brownsville,
Eagle Pass, Harlingen, Laredo, McAllen, Rio
Grande City, Uvalde, Victoria, and Weslaco.
• Maternal-fetal medicine and perinatology that
offers specialized care for high-risk
pregnancies.
• An adolescent weight management and
bariatrics program for adolescent obesity.
Always mindful of Clara Driscoll’s vision of
serving the children of South Texas, Driscoll
Children’s Hospital remains committed to its
mission to relieve suffering and meet the needs
of children, offering hope and healing in an
environment of trust, compassion and care.
❖
Above: With a medical staff of
approximately 250 physicians, more
than 1,700 employees and a volunteer
force of approximately 340, Driscoll
Children’s Hospital serves more than
138,000 children every year.
Left: Known as a cattlewoman,
philanthropist and South Texas
patriot, Driscoll Children’s Hospital
founder, Clara Driscoll, gave the bulk
of her estate to a foundation to create
a hospital especially for children.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 8 1

SHEA PHYSICAL
THERAPY
❖
Above: The staff of Shea Physical
Therapy. Front row (from left to
right): Jennifer Jones, OTR, CHT;
Sheila Heflin, OTR, CHT; Paige
Christensen, PT; and Ria Strowbridge,
PT. Back row (from left to right): Adel
Tijerina, office manager; Lee Ann
Dragon, PTA; Bernie Lane, CFO;
Dan Shea, PT; Joyce Hamende, PTA;
Diane Drysdale, PT; and LaDonna
Palmietto, COTA.
Right: Dan Shea, PT,
and Debbie Shea, PT.
Shea Physical Therapy (SPT) was founded in
1988 by Dan and Debbie Shea. They graduated
from Florida International University, Miami,
Florida, in 1982 and Dan followed Debbie to
Corpus Christi where her family was stationed
in the Navy.
Dan worked at Memorial Medical Center as
Director of Rehabilitative Medicine, and Debbie
joined Ada Wilson as a pediatric physical therapist.
Shea Physical Therapy’s first location was
in the Thomas Spann Clinic on South Brownlee.
The office was located here until 1992 when
SPT moved to its current facility on Everhart.
SPT’s 10,000 square foot facility includes ten
licensed therapists and sixteen other staff members.
In 1993 the group added occupational
therapy under the direction of Sheila Heflin,
OTR, Certified Hand Therapist. Hand Therapy
Services added hand therapist, Jennifer Jones,
OTR, CHT, and long-time staff member and
friend, LaDonna Palmietto, COTA.
Dan recognized the strong qualities in different
therapists and staff inviting them to join the
clinic. Adel Tijerina started with Dan in 1988,
and remains today as the administrator/office
manager. Clinical Education Director Ria
Strowbridge, PT, is a Dutch-trained therapist
bringing a strong orthopaedic, manual therapy
and vertigo correction approach. Diane
Drysdale, PT, and chief therapist arrived in
Corpus Christi from Canada with expertise in
sports and general orthopaedics. Paige
Christensen, PT, and compliance officer provides
a neurorehabilitation and amputee
emphasis to the group. Joyce Hamende, LPTA,
has worked with Dan since 1982. Lee Ann
Dragon, LPTA, is the youngest of the group and
locally trained. Human Resources Director
Bernie Lane, CFO brings strong organization to
Shea Physical Therapy since 1996.
Shea Physical Therapy has been blessed and
humbled by the ongoing support received
through the physicians that entrust their
patients to its care. Shea Physical Therapy is the
recipient of the Better Business Bureau Ethics
Award and was given the 2002 Outstanding
Physical Therapy Practice Award by the Texas
Physical Therapy Association. The practice’s
website is www.sheaphysicaltherapy.com.
8 2 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

In 1937, Dr. J. Houston Thomas and
Dr. R. Gayle Spann began a practice
together in Freer, Texas. The practice
relocated to Corpus Christi in 1949
where property was purchased on
Brownlee Boulevard for the construction
of the Thomas-Spann Clinic.
The clinic opened in July 1949 with
seven doctors and 13 hospital beds. The
clinic struggled at first, relying on patients
from Freer, Alice, and other nearby
towns. Eventually, the clinic began to
grow and add physicians of various
specialties to serve the community.
Expansion was completed in May
1954, making the clinic the first
completely air-conditioned building in
the area. By 1955 there were twelve
doctors and sixteen hospital beds. Dr.
James Gabbard performed one of the
first open heart surgeries in Corpus
Christi in the late 1950s at Thomas-
Spann Clinic. Further expansion added a
second floor in 1959, eventually growing
the clinic to 52 hospital beds, a tworoom
Operating Room (OR) suite, and a
three-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) by
1963. Changing dynamics in healthcare,
building code modifications, and other
regulatory changes made it difficult for
smaller hospitals to survive financially.
The clinic and its fifty-two-hospital-bed
designation from the state was sold to
Doctors’ Regional Hospital in 1975.
Today, Thomas-Spann Clinic is a
partnership of practicing physicians
evolving from the group originally
founded in 1949. The clinic expanded to
its current location at S.P.I.D. and Rodd
Field Road in 1996. The staff is comprised
of doctors specializing in family practice,
internal medicine, and rheumatology.
Doctors practicing at Thomas-Spann
Clinic are: Dr. George Benavidez, Dr. John
Carmichael, Dr. James Demberg, Dr. Orel
M. Everett, Dr. Scott W. Howell, Dr. James
H. Leibfarth, Dr. Danielle McCandless,
Dr. J. Mike Neff, Dr. Minh Nguyen,
Dr. David P. Petros, Dr. John R. Pettigrove,
Dr. Charles Sanders, Dr. Mark G. Strauss, and
Dr. Peter Vasconcellos. The clinic offers a full
range of services utilizing the latest technologies
and proudly continues to build on the strong
reputation set forth by Drs. Thomas and Spann.
THOMAS-SPANN
CLINIC
❖
Above: J. Houston Thomas, M.D.
Left: R.. Gayle Spann, M.D.
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 8 3

NUECES COUNTY
MEDICAL SOCIETY
❖
Clockwise, starting from the top:
Mayor Luther Jones presents an
award for participation in Community
Health Days. Left to right: Mayor
Luther Jones, Barbara Parker, NCMS
President Dr. Lawrence Buxton,
Sue Dulaney, and NCMS Executive
Director Jean Oliver, 1989.
NCMS has been holding an annual
Health Fair for forty-six years
offering free testing to the public.
NCMS members rally at the Nueces
County Courthouse in support of
Proposition 12, 2002.
The Nueces County Medical
Society has played an integral
part in the development of
Corpus Christi and Nueces
County. From the very beginning
in 1904 when Dr. Arthur
E. Spohn and six other local
physicians met and formed
the medical society, the welfare
of the community has
been its focus. This tradition
continues today, as our mission
statement clearly states:
The purposes of this Society are (1) to serve the
people of Nueces County in matters of medical
care, (2) to federate the profession licensed to
practice medicine in the State of Texas, (3) to
unite with other component societies to form
the Texas Medical Association and through it
with other State associations to form and
maintain the American Medical Association,
(4) to promote unity and cooperation among
its members, (5) to secure the enactment of
appropriate medical and healthcare legislation,
(6) to extend medical knowledge and advance
medical science, and (7) to strive for the prevention
and cure of disease and the improvement
of public health.
As Dr. John Pettigrove so aptly stated in his
Coastal Bend Medicine editorial on our centennial
in 2004, “For a hundred years, the system
created by our founders has remained largely
unchallenged. Until now that is. Today, as it did
a hundred years ago, medical practice stands at
a crossroads. Like our founders, we are called
to awaken the country to the need for rebirth
and to rebuild the eroding
foundations that those who
preceded us so ably built.
While we contemplate what
the future should be like, it
is only fitting that we reflect
on the lessons of the past.
Great men and women built
the healthcare system in
this country and some of
them lived and died right
here in Corpus Christi.”
Dramatic changes are
coming to the practice of
medicine, but as long as
the medical society focuses
on serving the people of
Nueces County, our members
will persevere.
8 4 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

Pulmonary Associates of Corpus Christi,
PLLC is like a breath of fresh air for many
patients in the Coastal Bend area who suffer
breathing disorders.
The practice’s mission is to provide the highest
and state-of-the-art pulmonary, critical care
and sleep medicine. “That includes everything
from asthma-to-pneumonia-to care of critically
ill patients,” says Dr. Salim Surani, founder.
The practice, started in
1997, provides outpatient and
inpatient pulmonary care. Dr.
Surani takes pride in delivering
critical care services to indigent
patients of Nueces County. The
practice also provides care to
patients identified through
testing with sleep disorders.
Undetected sleep disorders can
cause serious problems with
the heart and other organs if
left untreated, says Dr Khan.
Dr. Alamgir Khan joined the
practice in 2007 and, together,
they realize the importance of serving the
community and providing better education to
children about the hazards of smoking, which
led Surani to establish Its Your Life Foundation.
In addition to private practice, the doctors
continue to provide up-to-date education to the
new generation of doctors at the residency program
at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital. Practice
phone number is 361-885-7722.
❖
PULMONARY
ASSOCIATES
OF CORPUS
CHRISTI,
PLLC
Left to right: Dr. Alamgir Khan and
Dr. Salim Surani.
SPONSORS
A BETTER YOU Cosmetic Surgery Center ....................................................................................................................................74
American Bank .............................................................................................................................................................................76
CHRISTUS Spohn Health System .................................................................................................................................................66
Coastal Bend Blood Bank..............................................................................................................................................................78
Coastal Bend Psychiatric Associates ..............................................................................................................................................72
Driscoll Children’s Health Plan .....................................................................................................................................................80
Driscoll Children’s Hospital ..........................................................................................................................................................81
Neonatology Consultants of Corpus Christi..................................................................................................................................70
Nueces County Medical Society....................................................................................................................................................84
Shea Physical Therapy ..................................................................................................................................................................82
South Padre Island Pediatric Center..............................................................................................................................................77
Texas Medical Liability Trust ........................................................................................................................................................79
Thomas-Spann Clinic ...................................................................................................................................................................83
S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 8 5

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
B I L L A N D M A R J O R I E K . W A L R A V E N
Bill Walraven is a former columnist and reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller. Marjorie
Walraven is a former copy editor for the Caller, as well as a retired educator. In 2002 she
was named one of seventy-five “Legends of Texas High School Journalism” by the
Interscholastic League Press Conference.
The Walravens’ published works include Corpus Christi: The History of a Texas Seaport;
El Rincon: A History of Corpus Christi Beach; The Magnificent Barbarians: Little-known Tales of
the Texas Revolution; Gift of the Wind: The Corpus Christi Bayfront; Empresarios’ Children: The
Welders of Texas; Wooden Rigs-Iron Men, a history of the oil and gas industry in South Texas;
Real Texans Don’t Drink Scotch in Their Dr Pepper, and the recently published The General
Said “Nuts,” Firsthand Accounts of Wartime Heroism, Horror, and Humor.
8 6 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

ABOUT THE ARTIST
M A U R E E N R E E V E S T A R A Z O N
Tarazon, an accomplished artist, has made San Antonio her home for forty years.
Tarazon was born in London, England, where she received her initial art training. Much
of her girlhood years were spent drawing and sketching under the direction of her father,
Archibald Reeves. Later she entered London Polytechnic to continue her studies.
Tarazon has taught painting classes and completed numerous conservation works in a
career devoted to art. Tarazon has over fifteen hundred recorded works in collections
throughout the world. She has traveled and painted in Europe, the Middle East and the
United States. Her travels have enriched her perceptive knowledge of both the European
and American fields of art.
Tarazon is a member of Who’s Who of American Women and the San Antonio Art League
and Museum and has exhibited at numerous galleries throughout the U.S. Texas galleries
have included Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art and Sigoloff Gallery of San Antonio, Salado
Gallery and currently Smilovici’s Galleria in Boerne. Tarazon enjoyed a successful twentyyear
tenure with New York art dealer Hans Peeters.
For additional information about Maureen’s work, please visit www.maureentarazon.com.

For more information about the following publications or about publishing your own book, please call
Historical Publishing Network at 800-749-9790 or visit www.hpnbooks.com.
Albemarle & Charlottesville:
An Illustrated History of the First 150 Years
Black Gold: The Story of Texas Oil & Gas
Ector County, Texas: 125 Years of History
Garland: A Contemporary History
Historic Abilene: An Illustrated History
Historic Alamance County: An Illustrated History
Historic Albuquerque: An Illustrated History
Historic Amarillo: An Illustrated History
Historic Anchorage: An Illustrated History
Historic Austin: An Illustrated History
Historic Baldwin County: A Bicentennial History
Historic Baton Rouge: An Illustrated History
Historic Beaufort County: An Illustrated History
Historic Beaumont: An Illustrated History
Historic Bexar County: An Illustrated History
Historic Birmingham: An Illustrated History
Historic Brazoria County: An Illustrated History
Historic Brownsville: An Illustrated History
Historic Charlotte:
An Illustrated History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County
Historic Chautauqua County: An Illustrated History
Historic Cheyenne: A History of the Magic City
Historic Clayton County: An Illustrated History
Historic Columbus: A Bicentennial History
Historic Comal County: An Illustrated History
Historic Corpus Christi: An Illustrated History
Historic DeKalb County: An Illustrated History
Historic Denton County: An Illustrated History
Historic Edmond: An Illustrated History
Historic El Paso: An Illustrated History
Historic Erie County: An Illustrated History
Historic Fayette County: An Illustrated History
Historic Fairbanks: An Illustrated History
Historic Gainesville & Hall County: An Illustrated History
Historic Gregg County: An Illustrated History
Historic Hampton Roads: Where America Began
Historic Hancock County: An Illustrated History
Historic Henry County: An Illustrated History
Historic Hood County: An Illustrated History
Historic Houston: An Illustrated History
Historic Hunt County: An Illustrated History
Historic Illinois: An Illustrated History
Historic Kern County:
An Illustrated History of Bakersfield and Kern County
Historic Lafayette:
An Illustrated History of Lafayette & Lafayette Parish
Historic Laredo:
An Illustrated History of Laredo & Webb County
Historic Las Cruces: The Story of Las Cruces & The Mesilla Valley
Historic Lee County: The Story of Fort Myers & Lee County
Historic Louisiana: An Illustrated History
Historic Mansfield: A Bicentennial History
Historic Midland: An Illustrated History
Historic Mobile:
An Illustrated History of the Mobile Bay Region
Historic Montgomery County:
An Illustrated History of Montgomery County, Texas
Historic Ocala: The Story of Ocala & Marion County
Historic Oklahoma: An Illustrated History
Historic Oklahoma County: An Illustrated History
Historic Omaha:
An Illustrated History of Omaha and Douglas County
Historic Orange County: An Illustrated History
Historic Osceola County: An Illustrated History
Historic Ouachita Parish: An Illustrated History
Historic Palestine: An Illustrated History
Historic Paris and Lamar County: An Illustrated History
Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History
Historic Passaic County: An Illustrated History
Historic Pennsylvania An Illustrated History
Historic Philadelphia: An Illustrated History
Historic Prescott:
An Illustrated History of Prescott & Yavapai County
Historic Prince George’s County: An Illustrated History
Historic Richardson: An Illustrated History
Historic Rio Grande Valley: An Illustrated History
Historic Rogers County: An Illustrated History
Historic Santa Barbara: An Illustrated History
Historic Scottsdale: A Life from the Land
Historic Shelby County: An Illustrated History
Historic Shreveport-Bossier:
An Illustrated History of Shreveport & Bossier City
Historic South Carolina: An Illustrated History
Historic Smith County: An Illustrated History
Historic Temple: An Illustrated History
Historic Texarkana: An Illustrated History
Historic Texas: An Illustrated History
Historic Victoria: An Illustrated History
Historic Tulsa: An Illustrated History
Historic Wake County: An Illustrated History
Historic Warren County: An Illustrated History
Historic Williamson County: An Illustrated History
Historic Wilmington & The Lower Cape Fear:
An Illustrated History
Historic York County: An Illustrated History
In the Heart of Louisiana: An Illustrated History of Rapides Parish
Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego
Jefferson Parish: Rich Heritage, Promising Future
Miami’s Historic Neighborhoods: A History of Community
Midland: Window to the West
The New Frontier:
A Contemporary History of Fort Worth & Tarrant County
Old Orange County Courthouse: A Centennial History
Plano: An Illustrated Chronicle
Rich With Opportunity:
Images of Beaumont and Jefferson County
San Antonio, City Exceptional
The San Gabriel Valley: A 21st Century Portrait
Southwest Louisiana: A Treasure Revealed
The Spirit of Collin County
Valley Places, Valley Faces
Water, Rails & Oil: Historic Mid & South Jefferson County
8 8 ✦ C A R E B Y T H E S E A

$49.95
LEADERSHIP
SPONSOR
ISBN: 9781935377740