SANANTONIO -- It s the end of an era for one San Antonio medical facility. Southeast Baptist Hospital closed its doors on Thursday, June 16, 2011.
Southeast Baptist has been serving residents on that side of the city for more than 40 years. Its replacement facility will open in just a few days, but on this day, people who worked at and used the old hospital were a little bit sad.
It was a day of conflicting emotions for the more than 500 employees of Southeast Baptist Hospital. The facility has treated its last patient. Now, there are empty beds and dormant wheelchairs.
I think there s a lot of grief with leaving this place because of the stories in these walls and the hominess of it, said director of pastoral care Tim Cranfill.
From 1971 to today, the hospital treated more than a million emergency patients. Nearly a hundred thousand people underwent surgery and 15,000 families celebrated as their babies were brought into the world.
The first was Sandra Jo Crain, delivered on December 2, 1971. Her mother, Jo Campbell, remembers it well.
It was so neat and the hospital was so brand new and everybody was so nice, Campbell remembered. It was just a fun time.
It just seems like the hospital has always been in our lives, Crain commented. I was born here. My family was treated here. My grandfather, my grandmother, my uncle s been here. Everybody s been here.
The doctor who delivered Crain is also one of the people who donated the land for Southeast Baptist, one of the first satellite hospitals outside of downtown and the medical center.
I m having a lot of conflicting emotions. Dr. Nick Shannon commented. This hospital has been like a second home to me because of the amount of time I ve spent in it over 40 years. So I m sad to see it close. But I m extremely excited about the new hospital.
The new facility near Brooks City Base is just over three miles from Southeast Baptist. It will open with 110 beds and three floors and could someday house 300 beds on six floors.
It s just absolutely beautiful, Cranfill said.
The new Mission Trail Baptist Hospital, 3333 Research Plaza, will open on Monday, June 27, 2011, at 7 a.m. The first baby born there will be delivered by C-section at 9 a.m.
