From the Orange County Register
When 12-year-old Ken Spicer was wheeled from St. Joseph Hospital to adjacent Children’s Hospital of Orange County by a fireman and a nurse in 1964, CHOC had 62 beds in one building on Main Street.
Spicer, now 62 and living in Murrieta, was the first of four patients admitted to CHOC when it opened its doors on Oct. 5, 1964. He recalled the new place being more child-friendly than St. Joseph, but still a stark-white hospital.
“Back then, it was just another new hospital,” Spicer said. “Seeing it now, gee, what a difference.”
Now, CHOC has two towers with a total of 279 beds, on-site services including imaging, operating rooms and an emergency department, a second facility inside Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, and a partnership with UC Irvine. The Orange hospital, brightly colored with orange and blue, has play areas and even its own radio station.
CHOC celebrated its 50th anniversary last week with a gathering of hospital staffers past and present peppered with a few past and present patients and families, including Spicer and his family.
“Hurray and happy birthday,” hospital President and CEO Kim Cripe told the crowd.
In the 1950s, pediatricians and local figures including Walt Disney and Walter Knott saw a need for centralized pediatric care in Orange County. The Sisters of St. Joseph agreed to include CHOC in its own major expansion and donated the land for the hospital. The hospital broke ground in 1962 and opened two years later.
Carol Cox, 67, of Santa Ana started as a nurse in CHOC’s pediatric intensive-care unit in 1968. She recalled the big change of going from paper charting to using computers. She also remembered that, in the early days, nurses mixed baby formula, folded cloth diapers and took out the trash.
But even as the hospital grew, Cox said, working there always felt like being part of a family. In fact, one family, whose child was treated in the ICU, has brought staffers Thanksgiving dinner for the past 15 or so years.
“I feel very, very blessed that I’ve been able to be a part of CHOC and that I can continue to be part of CHOC,” said Cox, who retired nearly five years ago and continues to volunteer here. “In the beginning, it was very small so it was like a family. But it still feels like that even though it’s on a grander scale.”
Nick Anas, the hospital’s pediatrician in chief, started at the hospital in 1986. For him, the hospital’s biggest change is the Bill Holmes Tower, which opened last year. The building provided the hospital, for the first time, its own operating rooms, emergency department, clinical laboratory and imaging equipment. Previously, CHOC relied on St. Joseph for those services.
But one thing hasn’t changed, Anas said – the hospital’s commitment to caring for all children.
When he first interviewed to work at CHOC, Anas asked the board how it would pay to care for all of the children at the hospital. He was told not to worry about that; his only concern should be to care for them.
Spicer, the first patient, had 16 surgeries at CHOC between the ages of 12 and 18. His right leg was 31/2 inches shorter than his left; his surgeries both lengthened the right and shortened the left. At age 30, he had his right leg amputated.
During his first three-month stint at the hospital, he recalled how, with the pain medication, he could only stomach Hawaiian Punch, so a nurse bought him some. On the day he was discharged, his 13th birthday, the nurses made him a Beatles cake.
“I spent a lot of time here,” he said. “It’s just been great to watch it grow.”
Contact the writer: 714-704-3771 or rkheel@ocregister.com
That’s so 2014
As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, hospital staffers are putting together a digital time capsule.
During last week’s celebration, a video featuring hospital mascot Choco joked about including the trends of 2014, such as “Let It Go,” Pharrell’s Grammy hat and selfies. In reality, the time capsule will have messages, poems and photos (including selfies) uploaded on an iPad.
It will be placed in the front of the hospital and opened in 25 years.
