b'H e a l t h c a r eThe new North Tower of Christus Spohn Shoreline HospitalCorpus Christi serves as the healthcare epicenter of South Texas, serving well over a half-million residents south of San Antonio. Over the past few years, the healthcare infrastructure of the city has continued to expand and improve, even as the regions formerly largest hospital has been closed and repurposed. Memorial Hospital opened in 1944 and was oper-ated by Nueces County until 1996, when Spohn Healthcare took over. Me-morial received national attention in 1995 when Selena Quintanilla was Driscoll Foundation Childrens Hospital on South Alameda in Corpus Christirushed there after being shot by Yolanda Saldivar at the Days Inn on Navigation, andthird decade of the 21st Century has been implemented at the new North Tower at it is where her tragic death was announced. In 2006, reporters from around the worldSpohn Shoreline, including a state-of-the-art emergency room and trauma center, descended on Memorial Hospital after news broke that Vice President Dick Cheneythe most advanced private ICU suites, and operating suites that rival any in the state. accidentally shot Austin lawyer Harry Whittington while hunting on the ArmstrongThe new North Tower opened just months before the Covid crisis began, and the Ranch, south of Kingsville. In the years since, Memorial Hospital, which had obtainedlarger, improved facilities have allowed Christus doctors and nurses, as well as dozens certification as the regions only Level 2 Trauma Center, has had all operations trans- of visiting nurses, to provide the very best care to South Texans afflicted by the virus.ferred to the much-expanded Christus Spohn Shoreline Hospital, with the exceptionIn 1905 when Corpus Christi had about 7,000 residents, Dr. Arthur Spohn led the of mental health services. effort to build the citys first hospital on North Beach, then called the Spohn Sani-In the years since, the original South Tower of Spohn Shoreline was almost complete- tarium. Dr. Spohn forged a partnership with three Sisters of the Incarnate Word, a ly overhauled and modernized, including the construction of a new ER trauma centerRoman Catholic congregation of nuns who established a monastery in Corpus Christi and an advanced stroke care center. In 2020, the hospitals spectacular, new Northin 1871. The sisters would nurse patients and run the hospital, while Dr. Spohn would Tower was completed and has set a new high watermark for advanced medical careprovide medical and surgical care. For the following century, the Sisters of Charity of in the Coastal Bend. Everything one would expect to find in a hospital built in thethe Incarnate Word led Spohn Hospital into a regional network that would merge in 72 THE COASTAL BEND TOUR+RELO+BUILD GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'