The woman who started it all
Great news for Rio Grande Valley families with sick kids: Driscoll Health System held a groundbreaking in Edinburg on Tuesday for RGV Driscoll Children’s Hospital. The site is located just north of DHR Women’s Hospital near the corner of McColl and Dove Ave.
Sick children and their families who need medical access to physician specialists may no longer have to travel to Driscoll’s main hospital in Corpus, depending on the need, once the new facility opens in the spring of 2023.
The new, independently operated, eight-level pediatric hospital will further the mission of Driscoll Children’s Hospital founder Clara Driscoll to provide medical care to all the children of South Texas.
“A groundbreaking changes a concept to a reality,” said Eric Hamon, president and CEO of Driscoll Health System. “As we reach this stage with Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley, it is both gratifying and exciting. I look forward to the road ahead, leading to a new full-service pediatric hospital for the children of the Rio Grande Valley,”
In early 2019, Driscoll began discussions to expand pediatric services to the Rio Grande Valley to include inpatient acute care. From there, plans developed for a new hospital that would be located at 2820 W. Michaelangelo Drive in Edinburg leased and operated 100 percent by Driscoll Children’s Hospital.
Driscoll has had a presence in the RGV for decades, with specialty centers in Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen staffed by Driscoll pediatric subspecialists and other clinical team members.
What a woman
If you read up on the history of Philanthropist Clara Driscoll, who gets the credit for starting the hospital that bears her name, you soon find out what an amazing woman she really was.
Born in 1881, dead in 1945, the woman lived an extraordinary life. She was as comfortable in high-class society social gatherings as she was in a room full of cigar smoke and cowboys who could swear like sailors.
Her family’s fortune began with her grandfather, an Irishman, who fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, which was led by Sam Houston and is considered the deciding battle of the Texas Revolution. For his bravery, Clara Driscoll’s grandpa was gifted 1,200 acres in Victoria County
Ċlara came on the scene in 1881. Her father had fought in the Civil War and subsequently built a multi-million-dollar ranching operation near Corpus Christi.
Fluent in four languages, Clara Driscoll was educated in San Antonio, New York City, and France. She became a writer at the age of 24 and then married a Tennessee newspaper editor, Hal Sevier, who would go on to found the Austin American-Statesman.
She would go on to help save the Alamo circa 1898. After a trip to Europe, she would return to her home in San Antonio, only to find herself alarmed at the state of the Texas historical landmark. She joined the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and helped raise money to restore the Alamo. At one point, in 1931, she put up $70,000 of her own money (worth approximately $1.2 million today) to help the state legislature purchase more city property surrounding the shrine.
In 1933, never a woman to back down to anyone, she squared off with city engineers who wanted to purchase a portion of the Alamo to widen Houston Street. Guess who won?
Two years later, she talked the San Antonio Fire Department out of its plans to erect a new fire station adjacent to the Alamo.
In 1939, Clara Driscoll donated $92,000 ($1.8 million in today’s currency) to the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs, and three years later, she built the famous Driscoll Hotel in Corpus.
Just before she died in 1945 at the age of 64, Driscoll established the Driscoll Foundation Children’s Hospital in Corpus.
(Source: Wikipedia.org.)
Upon her death, Time Magazine took notice of this remarkable woman by publishing this piece about her:
“Money Player. Politicians soon learned to respect her: she could drink, battle, cuss and connive with the best of them, outspend practically all of them. Uvalde's whitebrowed John Nance Garner became her great & good friend—in & out of smoke-filled rooms, they understood each other. She made quadrennial $25,000 donations to national campaigns, but know-how, not money, worked her up to national committeewoman (Democratic Party).”
Considering that not only is the Driscoll Children’s Hospital still alive and well, but expanding, leaves a lasting testimony to the woman’s legacy: a tough exterior with a soft heart for children and humanity in general.
Future care
Once it opens in 2023, Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley will operate with more than 500 employees, creating significant economic impact and new job opportunities for clinical, ancillary and support staff in the Valley. For the latest listings, go to https://driscollchildrens. org/dchrgvjobs.
Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley will provide the following pediatric services:
# Pediatric specialist
# Acute inpatient and outpatient surgery
# Emergency services
# Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
# Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
# Rehabilitation: physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy
# Imaging
# Laboratory
# Child Life program
About Driscoll Health System
Driscoll Health System is comprised of Driscoll Children’s Hospital, Driscoll Health Plan, physician practices and clinics, and specialty centers located throughout South Texas.
Driscoll Children’s Hospital is a not-for-profit 191-bed pediatric tertiary care center with a 61-bed Level IV Advanced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 22-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit with 10 dedicated Cardiac beds and an Emergency Room created specifically for pediatrics. Driscoll is one of eight freestanding children’s hospitals in the State of Texas.
Driscoll offers more than 30 medical and surgical specialties offering care throughout South Texas, including Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley, Victoria, and Laredo. Through the vision and generosity of its founder, Clara Driscoll, Driscoll Children’s Hospital opened in 1953, becoming the first, and remains the only, freestanding children’s hospital in South Texas. In 2020, Driscoll had almost 122,000 patient visits, including almost 28,000 patients seen at South Texas’ first emergency room created exclusively for children.
Driscoll sees patients in its clinics in Brownsville/Harlingen, McAllen, Laredo/Eagle Pass and Victoria. The Driscoll Health Plan provides insurance coverage to more than 230,000 individuals across South Texas, predominantly children and pregnant women.