History of Spohn Hospital

Along with the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio and CHRISTUS Spohn Health System

19th Century Medicine
Medicine in general in the early 1800s was still very primitive. There were no diagnostic tools or knowledge of the existence of germs. Disease was seen as a general state, not as a patterned and predictable response to a particular cause.

By the 1830s, things began to change as the stethoscope came into limited use, and the introduction of surgical anesthesia in the late 1840s marked a major change in medical practice. By mid-century, well-educated physicians were beginning to believe most illnesses had a distinct natural cause.

Then, in the 1850s, Louis Pasteur began work that would lead to the discovery that bacteria were the cause of many diseases. By 1867, Englishman Joseph Lister, showed that surgical cleanliness through the use of antiseptics in open wounds could dramatically reduce infection and the high incidence of surgical deaths. Further discoveries in bacteriology by German Robert Koch, beginning in 1877, led to the eventual defeat of many diseases. These three men’s discoveries would revolutionize medicine in the latter half of the 19th century and pave the way for modern health care.

The Sisters Come to Texas to Serve
A cultural, economic and societal revolution occurred in the late 1800s—in Texas. After the Civil War, Galveston was the largest city and major port, shipping out cotton and bringing in immigrants and manufactured goods. The area was seen as a land of boundless opportunity for easterners and immigrants—but life wasn’t easy.

In 1866, yellow fever, diphtheria and typhoid were rampant throughout Texas. C.M. Dubuis, the Bishop of Galveston (a diocese which encompassed the whole state) set out for his native France to seek help. He went to the monastery of the Incarnate Word in Lyons in search of nursing sisters to take charge of the hospitals, refuges and asylums back in Texas. In France, Mother M. Angelique Hiver suggested he should seek volunteer nurses among the nearby Hospital Sisters of Lyons. There, Bishop Dubuis persuaded three Sisters to undertake the task of establishing a new congregation to serve the sick and poor in his adopted state of Texas.

A mere three months after the sister’s arrival, Galveston experienced the worst yellow fever epidemic in history. Mother Blandine died, and Sr. Ange was ill but recovered. Life was hard for the remaining sisters, but they persevered. Six more sisters arrived in 1868 from France, and the new Order grew. In 1869, Mother Madeline, Sister Agnes and Sister Pierre traveled from Galveston to San Antonio and founded the congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word; within months they established Santa Rosa Hospital. The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word were largely responsible for answering the healthcare needs of Texans from the 1800s well into the 20th century.

Dr. Arthur Spohn…Doctor, Inventor, Humanitarian
In 1872, Dr. Arthur Edward Spohn moved to the bustling town of Corpus Christi from Canada. Educated at the University of Michigan’s School of Medicine and at Long Island College Hospital in New York, he then served as U.S. Surgeon in charge of a military quarantine in Galveston following a severe cholera outbreak. Dr. Spohn invented an elastic rubber-ring tourniquet for bloodless operations that was adapted by numerous armies for use in the field, and, after attending the Louis Pasteur Institute in Paris, brought the Pasteur treatment for rabies to the United States. The good doctor was also known for providing medical care to patients who needed his skill, regardless of their ability to pay.

After moving to Corpus Christi, Dr. Spohn met and married Sarah Josephine Kenedy, daughter of Captain Mifflin Kenedy, an early ranching and business partner of King Ranch founder Captain Richard King. Dr Spohn recognized the need for a hospital in the growing community and, through his association with the Kenedy and King families, Dr. Spohn was able to gain community support for constructing a hospital to serve the 7,000 people in the area. Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg, wife of Robert J. Kleberg, Sr., took on the fundraising challenge and her husband donated a tract of land on North Beach.

As soon as part of the funds for the hospital were raised, Dr. Spohn contacted Rev. Mother Madeleine of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, who agreed to the challenge of managing and maintaining the facility that would always bear Dr. Spohn’s name.

Mother Mary Cleophas Hurst was appointed to set up the new hospital. The sisters committed the additional $5000 needed to build and furnish the hospital. She and three other sisters (Mary Conrad, Mary Regina and Mary Austin) made the trip to the coast and took up residence, ready to provide all the services the new hospital needed. They even planted their own vegetable garden to provide fresh produce.

The original two-story Spohn Sanitarium opened its doors on July 26, 1905, just 100 yards from the bay on North Beach. Dr. Alfred George Heaney, a New York native who moved to Corpus Christi and became an associate of Dr. Spohn, admitted the first patient. As a large number of patients who applied for admission at the seaside sanitarium could not be accommodated, the Sisters, encouraged by the cooperation of the people of Corpus Christi and the devoted interest manifested by the doctors, undertook the erection of the first annex in 1906, and the second with a chapel in 1911.

By 1915, the number of sisters working in the Sanitarium had increased from 4 to 14; Mother Mary George Daly was administrator. A total of 1,554 patients came that year, and more than half could not pay their bills. There was never an empty bed.

A Dawn of Devastation Leads to a New Beginning
Enlarged and serving an ever-increasing number of patients, Spohn Sanitarium continued its mission of charity until, on September 14, 1919, the peace and calm of the community life and the sanitarium were interrupted by the raging hurricane which bore down on Corpus Christi. The tidal wave arose and within a few hours on that September night, the building, lashed by the seething waves, stood in the midst of raging flood.

Twelve patients, the fourteen Sisters, the chaplain, eight employees and their relatives crowded together in the chapel, when that wing started to rock. Then the waters of Corpus Christi Bay and those of the Nueces Bay met, and escape from the building was no longer possible. Father Jaillet recited the Rosary constantly. Shortly after midnight, Father consumed the Blessed Sacrament, and about six o’clock the north wing went to pieces and was swept away by the flood, carrying with it Sister Thais, Miss Theresa Reece (a nurse), and two patients. Sister Thais’ body was found five miles away near Portland, identified by her habit.

Dawn on September 15, 1919, revealed devastation across Corpus Christi. The destruction of the sanitarium and losses sustained by the community were only a part of the disaster of that fateful day. The death toll was approximately 400. Thousands were rendered homeless, churches and schools were severely damaged; sorrow and misery were apparent everywhere. Property damage amounted to $20 million.

The powerful hurricane had demolished Spohn Sanitarium, its furious winds tossing the wood structure like twigs. John G. Kenedy, Sr. offered his home at Broadway and Lipan Streets, later the site of the Corpus Christi Cathedral, for an emergency hospital. During the next four years the sisters labored to care for patients with inadequate space and a shortage of equipment, while Alice Kleberg worked to raise funds to construct a new hospital. She began by persuading her mother, Henrietta M. King (widow of King Ranch founder Richard King) to donate a five-acre tract of land on a bluff overlooking the bay. Alice then marshaled a committee of local citizens to help in the fundraising efforts.

The hurricane had devastated the community and many people had lost everything; money was tight. At one point the Sisters’ temporary facility became nearly unbearable. It looked as though the new hospital would not be built and they would be recalled to San Antonio. At last, work began on the new structure.

In 1923 the new, three-story brick, 50-bed Spohn Sanitarium opened at the intersection of Third and Ayers Streets, the site on which CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi- Shorelinestands today. Like his father before him, Dr. Harry G. Heaney admitted the first patient and performed the first operation there.

Training Nurses for the Future
The Sisters knew that expanded facilities would mean more patients, which would in turn require additional trained nurses. In the absence of any formal nursing program in South Texas, they established the Spohn School of Nursing in 1926. During the first two years of the school’s existence, the hospital building housed the nurses, but the accommodations were very inadequate. Dr. Henry Redmond, first dean of the nursing school, realized the need for residence facilities and generously offered his old home, located on Broadway. This home was transferred to the hospital grounds where nurses enjoyed the comfort and atmosphere of a home life. Six nurses were graduated in May 1930.

1930 also saw another important development, as Spohn changed from an institution of care for long-term illness to an institution of cure for the critically ill: Spohn “Sanitarium” became Spohn Hospital to better reflect the new focus.

Despite the need for more rooms, the Depression put any expansion on hold, and by 1935 the hospital was so crowded that the school of nursing was closed to free up valuable space for hospital wards. Finally the Sisters were able to add a 50-room annex in 1937.

Mother Monica Grant was appointed administrator in 1938 and saw Spohn through the difficult times of World War II. Sixty-five physicians on the staff were called into military service and the Sisters were concerned that the hospital would not have enough patients, but again times proved the need for Spohn hospital and the Sisters had to turn patients away for need of space.

At the close of the war, expansion seemed imminent as administrator Sister Benjamin Laesing spearheaded plans for a new wing. But a shortage of building materials following the war delayed construction for several more years.

In 1950, Sister Mary Vincent O’Donnell was named administrator. She had just received her master’s degree in hospital administration and was the first to be professionally prepared for her position. Her tenure launched a half-century of remarkable growth for Spohn. The federal government had passed the Hill-Burton Act in 1946, which made funds available for hospital construction, and she pursued grants vigorously. A new five-story wing opened in 1951 with an additional 120 beds, nurseries, operating and emergency rooms, x-ray departments, laboratories and orthopedic facilities as well as a convent on the fifth floor for the Sisters. This addition brought Spohn’s capacity to 250 beds.

But Sister Mary Vincent was just getting started. After WWII, many nurses who served during the war effort left work to start families, resulting in a nationwide nurse shortage. Sister Mary Vincent planned to reopen the Spohn School of Nursing. She appealed to her order, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, to provide funds, and also contacted Ben Vaughn, Sr., administrator of the James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation in Beeville. The Sisters of Charity matched the Foundation’s $300,000 grant, and the James R. Dougherty, Jr. School of Nursing opened in 1954, named in honor of the Dougherty’s son who was killed in heroic action in WWII. At the dedication of the building honoring her son, Mrs. Dougherty termed nursing “a high calling, requiring faith in God.”

Ten years later, The Federal Training Act of 1964 provided funding for colleges and universities to develop nursing degree programs. This enabled Del Mar College to develop a nursing curriculum, and the Dougherty School of Nursing closed. Today student nurses from Del Mar School of nursing and Texas A&M College of Nursing perform many hours of clinical training through CHRISTUS Spohn Health System. The Dougherty School of Nursing was home to hundreds of future nurses and a vital part of the medical community throughout South Texas.

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