Mary Jo Update #6 - Thank you, Mr. Vanderbilt

We went to the stem cell center at 10am this morning to get the dressing changed on the Hickman catheter that Mary Jo had installed in the hospital yesterday. This picture of Mary Jo was taken in the stem cell center this morning.

Mary Jo's nurse this morning was named Kim. Kim was telling us some of the history of Vanderbilt University and the hospital here. Kim mentioned that she was a product of Vanderbilt. She has been a nurse here for 34 years, and was even born in the university hospital.

Kim was telling us that she was the youngest of 13 children. She said that since it's inception the Vanderbilt Hospital has been dedicated to providing quality care to all who came whether they had the means to pay for it, or not. Obviously, with so many children money was tight in Kim's family. To compound things there were complications with her birth and Kim was kept alive in an incubator driving up the hospital bill even more.

When it was brought to the attention of the financial people at Vanderbilt that the doctor and hospital bills were way beyond what Kim's family had the ability to pay. An arrangement was made between the hospital and her family that all the bills would be taken care of, if they would allow them to do research to identify the causes of the complications that were experienced with her birthing. Kim is grateful for all that Vanderbilt has done for personally, and for her family when she was born.

Kim told us about Cornelius Vanderbilt, the wealthy railroad man who decided to make the gift of $1 million dollars in 1873 to found the university here in Nashville. Up to that time, Mr. Vanderbilt's gift was the largest charitable contribution made in U.S. history.

So, Kim, Mary Jo and all of the people who have been served at this great hospital and educated at this great university owe Mr. Vanderbilt a debt of gratitude for his vision and gift that got all of this started so long ago. You can read more about Mr. Vanderbilt and the university here.



With many of you, I have been watching alot of the Masters this weekend. It is really neat that while we are here at Vanderbilt, that Brandt Snedecker, a former All American golfer at Vanderbilt, is tied for the lead going into the final round of the Masters. Brandt was born in Nashville. He met his wife, Mandy, while they were both attending  school here. With probably all of Nashville, I will be pulling for Brandt to hold off Tiger and the others tomorrow.

Mary Jo's Neupogen shots start tomorrow. Early wake up call. We have to be there at 8:30am.