Book Description

In 1881 the voting citizens of Texas located their state's first university medical school on an island in the Gulf of Mexico. Some probably wished to keep sick people away from the mainland. Others knew that the residents of Galveston, the state's largest city at that time, had enthusiastically embraced the best traditions of American medicine throughout their city's history. Voters honored these efforts by granting permission to establish the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB), a feat that required ten years of decisive struggles. The first medical students finally walked the steps of the Ashbel Smith Building (Old Red) in October 1891. After more than one hundred years, including the great storm of 1900 that ravaged Galveston and took more than six thousand lives, this pioneering institution is still flourishing as a major academic health center devoted to saving lives, training caregivers, and making discoveries that improve health care. Saving Lives, Training Caregivers, Making Discoveries is a comprehensive introduction to this institution's historical development. Grounded in meticulous archival research and oral history interviews, the book describes, ex