Tales of VUMC Past

Dean Driver at his home in Gallatin, Tennessee. (photo by Susan Urmy)
December 18, 2024

The man who gave Angel 1 its wings

“How much closer to an angel can you get than a little bitty baby struggling for life?” said Dean Driver, 91, who converted a panel truck into VUMC’s first neonatal transport in his driveway.

By Danny Bonvissuto
December 6, 2024

He was the heir to a pharmaceutical company fortune; she was a star of silent movies. Together, the legacies of Rudolph Light and Ann Rork Light continue to shine.

Part of an occasional series about the people behind the names of VUMC buildings.

By Wayne Wood
April 10, 2024

The pediatrician, the resident, the strawberry monster, and the zebra

Dr. William “Buck” Donald was a Vanderbilt Pediatrics legend. In his long career caring for children, he treated many routine conditions — and some that were not routine. Medical people have a term for the not routine — “zebras.”

By Wayne Wood
April 4, 2024

How to find older online issues of VUMC publications

Archives of discontinued publications or those that have changed servers or hosts over time are also still available online, sometimes in a hit-or-miss fashion.

By Wayne Wood
July 25, 2023

The Wild Kingdom guy thought it would be a good idea to bring a python into the hospital. He was right.

It’s cold-blooded, check it and see

By Wayne Wood
May 15, 2023

Polio patients, iron lung respirators, and…hey, is that Pat Boone??!!

Polio was a terrifying disease, once filling wards at VUMC with paralyzed patients in iron lungs. Vaccines have saved us from all that.

By Wayne Wood
May 15, 2023

I was the last person in an iron lung at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

It was in a storage room. It still worked. For some reason, I was allowed to get in it.
By Wayne Wood
August 19, 2022

There is a reminder, hiding in plain sight in the architecture of Medical Center North, of how VUMC dealt with a deadly infectious disease almost 100 years ago

An open-air porch for tuberculosis patients was built into the old Vanderbilt Hospital — and it's still visible if you know where to look
By Wayne Wood
May 12, 2022

An afternoon with the woman who grew up at One Hundred Oaks

It was a retailing wonderland that VUMC transformed into a health care destination. But before all that, it was Carolyn Suschnick's home.
By Wayne Wood
February 9, 2022

The mystery of “Little Jim”

Who is the serious little boy in the 1932 picture, and why is he dressed like a miniature doctor?
By Wayne Wood
December 23, 2021

The most popular VUMC Voice stories of 2021

Love stories, an honor walk, a heroic rescue -- and plumbing
By Wayne Wood
August 25, 2020

The Vanderbilt doctor who told his story of battling AIDS on “60 Minutes”

He wrote a bestseller, was interviewed on "60 Minutes," and his story showed a more hopeful future for people infected with HIV
By Wayne Wood
July 9, 2020

Harold Jordan, VUMC’s first Black resident, arrived on campus 56 years ago. He looks back on a very different time at the Medical Center.

The pioneering physician recalls the summer of 1964, the support of his colleagues and the challenges he faced
By Wayne Wood
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