Tales of VUMC Past

September 12, 2025

From interns to experts: A remarkable century of residencies at Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s graduate medical education program has grown from an inaugural dozen to include more than 1,200 individuals, with more than 170 highly competitive residency and fellowship programs.

By Jill Clendening
September 12, 2025

Medical Center North at 100: Celebrating a century of progress, innovation and change

As Medical Center North marks its 100th anniversary, we reflect on its enduring legacy at VUMC.

By Wayne Wood, Jill Clendening and Evan Dorian
January 28, 2025

Langford Auditorium: great acoustics, great-tasting backstory

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

By Wayne Wood
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