What I Learned In Houston

I have many faults as a husband and father and it pains me to have to acknowledge that from time to time.  That being said, I suppose we all have our short-comings, right?  Maybe so, but I’m going through one of those phases currently and I don’t like it.

Sometimes I hear things, and I think I’m listening,  but what I’m hearing doesn’t imprint on my memory. Maybe it is because my mind is usually running several processes and even though I might look relaxed, I’m typically chewing on a few things mentally.  No excuse.

There were times in my life that “mental multi-tasking” served me well, but, not always. I recall how, in 1984, I was taught the importance of “staying in the moment,” by a guy I loved, the late Bill Bates.  It is a lesson I lose track of all too often.

So was the case when our youngest daughter was explaining to me a few months ago how big the hospital system is  where she was going to PA school.  I regretably, completely missed that boat.

On Wednesday of this past week, Megan took me for a brief, walking tour of Texas Medical Center, (TMC).

A few highlights:

An aerial view of TMC. (That’s downtown Houston at the top of the photo)

• TMC is the largest medical complex in the world.
• 8 million patient visits a year
• More heart surgeries than anywhere in the world (almost 14,000)
• 180,000+  surgeries a year (1 begins every 3 minutes)
• 750,000 ER visits/year
• World’s largest Children’s Hospital
• World’s largest Cancer Hospital (MD Anderson)
• 8th largest business district in the US
• It’s daytime population would rank it as the 42nd largest city in the US
• Over 26,000 babies delivered each year (1 every 20 minutes)
• 106,000 total employees
• Over 50 million developed square feet with $3,000,000,000 in construction projects underway.   
• Everything’s bigger in Texas?

To read the list is impressive. To see it and walk through the halls and among the buildings of healing is amazing and humbling.

To realize your daughter is one of 40 students selected worldwide this year to receive their medical education here is beyond any words I can find, but to steal a phrase from a credit card commercial. . .  priceless.

Just call me awestruck, thankful and still trying to get it right.

PS.  Baylor College of Medicine   is not  related to Baylor University, which is located in Waco, TX.