More Than a Place

Book excerpt: When Vanderbilt University Hospital embedded a children's hospital within its new medical building in 1980, it represented a victory for those who had fought to establish a world-class children's hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. It took the combined efforts of the Junior League of Nashville, the Council of Jewish Women, other community leaders, parents, dedicated medical professionals, and even a state Supreme Court case more than half a century to make Vanderbilt Children's Hospital a reality. Along with disease and pain, the hospital's advocates battled racism, religious differences, politicians, academics, lawsuits, and hospital administration to ensure that children in middle Tennessee were served by a medical facility dedicated to them. Engagingly written and rich in historic detail, 'More Than a Place' traces the development of the children's hospital from its genesis as the Junior League Home for Crippled Children to its establishment as a premiere children's hospital.