Alethea Drexler
Archives assistant
Aerial view, 1973. The Library, center, is preparing to receive its addition. The forward-facing “wings” were added to Hermann Hospital (lower left) a year or so earlier.
P-815 San Jacinto Lung Association mobile respiratory disease screening unit, 1973. This is an early-1960’s GMC school-type bus converted to house x-ray equipment.
P-3069 Methodist Hospital’s early blood donation van, a 1973 Dodge Concord RV.
P-2941 Ben Taub General Hospital in 1976.
P-3000 Ben Taub’s emergency department, with pink scrubs and a nurse in a frilly cap.
P-3016 Cardiologists Denton Cooley and John C. Norman with a model of a heart.
Denton Cooley and John Norman established the Texas Heart Institute’s Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratory in 1972 to research and develop devices for cardiac assist and replacement. Dr. Norman (1930 – 2014) was its first director. He also taught at both the University of Texas at Houston and at UT San Antonio. He was editor-in-chief at the inception of Cardiovascular Diseases: Bulletin of the Texas Medical Center in 1974; it still publishes as the Texas Heart Institute Journal.
[1]Dr. Norman’s obituary, written by Dr. Cooley.
[2] Texas Heart Institute – Denton Cooley
P-3340 Cardiopulmonary bypass machine in use at the Texas Heart Institute in 1972.
This is the machine that maintains circulation and oxygenation during heart surgery. The first bypass prototype was built, astonishingly, in 1885, but practical machines were not developed until the early 1950’s.
[1] Historical perspectives in cardiology.
[2] Texas Heart Institute.
[3] National Library of Medicine
In August 1976, Hermann Hospital and Dr. James “Red” Duke debuted LifeFlight, the country’s second civilian helicopter medical transport. The first was Denver, Colorado’s, Flight For Life, which was established in 1972 to facilitate rescues from difficult-to-access areas of the Rocky Mountains.
The first helicopter, pictured here at LifeFlight’s inauguration ceremony, was a French-built Aérospatiale Alouette III/SA 319B. Memorial Hermann has used several models since then and currently operates a fleet of six Airbus EC 145’s.
Institutional Collection 086, Hermann Hospital archives, 35mm slide.
[1] LifeFlight on Wikipedia
[2] Memorial Hermann LifeFlight
[3] Flight for Life Colorado, history