The early years of the 1960s were a fast-moving era of expansion for Baptist Memorial Hospital. Both the Doctors’ Medical Building and School of Nursing were added to the main campus. Parking also was expanded to accommodate the increasing number of staff, patients and visitors. Baptist Memorial Hospital was becoming an important asset to Oklahoma City.

Staying true to the original vision of an expansive health care campus providing treatment and education, a joint ceremony in November 1961 dedicated the new Doctors’ Medical Building and broke ground for the School of Nursing. The following year, the nursing school began offering a three-year diploma program culminating in an R.N. (registered nurse) degree.

When the school was dedicated in September 1962 it included living quarters for 56 nursing students, a lounge, recreational space, a library, three classrooms and faculty offices. Six classes graduated before the school moved to the University of Central Oklahoma, and the building was used for administrative services before being torn down to make way for the 56th Street Parking Garage.

Expansion plans to add more beds to the hospital began in September 1962. Sen. Robert S. Kerr started the process by gathering $850,000 from donors and overseeing a $1.5 million capital campaign. A host of prominent Oklahoma City business and community leaders joined the capital campaign committee. Sen. Kerr died on New Year’s Day 1963, but more than $2 million in pledges and a $500,000 donation from the Baptist General Convention had already been secured, and ground was broken for the new West Tower on Nov. 12.

Meanwhile, clinical advances continued. Dr. Nazih Zuhdi performed the first open-heart surgery at Baptist Memorial Hospital in 1963. Three years prior, Dr. Zuhdi had developed the Total Intentional Hemodilution process, revolutionizing cardiothoracic surgery worldwide and paving the way for heart transplants. Most visitors had no idea that the large item under a sheet in the corner of a hallway was Dr. Zuhdi’s heart-lung machine, used during these revolutionary open-heart procedures.

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