Judy Vasquez was on staff as a nurse when Doctors Hospital of Manteca celebrated its grand opening 50 years ago.

And she was there Wednesday when Doctors celebrated a half century of caring.

Vasquez chuckled when she told the crowd of 150 about the “odd ball things” the nurses had to do in the new hospital including washing and sterilizing the bed pans that were made of stainless steel.

“One of my right hand men, Mickey Thole, is standing there,” she said.  “Mickey was putting beds together and I was making beds – that’s what we did in getting the hospital set up.  At that time the medicines were bottled and labeled.  We had no pharmacy and I, being a new graduate, was sure I could put all the medicines together.”

She remembers her first supervisor Director of Nurses Avis Brewster as being very stern, but also very loving.  The late Brewster’s two daughters were listening to Vasquez from the back of the room. 

Gloria Brewster Lowe has recently retired as an emergency room nurse in Scottsdale, Arizona. Nancy Brewster Whitaker has a teaching credential and worked at the American River College in Sacramento as part of the administrative staff.  She lives in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael.

“She (Brewster) took me under her wing and she showed me the ropes,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez was pregnant when the hospital opened its doors.  With that being said, she reached out to her son Steven and told everyone, “It was this little guy,” referencing her 50-year-old son standing next to her by the lectern. 

“So, she really took me under her wing,” Vasquez added.  “She made sure I had my first maternity uniform.  When I took my state boards, she sent me flowers at the hotel, but I didn’t stay at the hotel where I had told her I was going to be, so the flowers were sent back.”

Vasquez looked across the room at Dr. Melford Larson, who she said had planned to make her a Critical Care Unit nurse, but she said that wasn’t her cup of tea. 

Vasquez said she always tried to follow the Golden Rule and give her patients the best care possible including her famous nightly back rubs that many remember even today.  By the time she retired in 2000, she had helped care for patients for 38 years and had also attained the position of the assistant director of nurses. 

Seven of the first year babies – all with their 50th birthdays this year – were called up to the lectern by hospital Chief Executive Officer Mark Lisa who served as master of ceremonies. The seven were recognized for getting the hospital off to a good start in the OB department where nurse Frances Purvis worked the night shift often by herself. She had delivered many of the new babies herself after reportedly waiting too long to call the doctors.  

They “babies” included Steve Vasquez, Deanna Tocco, Daryl Quaresma, Debbie Leland, Ernie Costa, Vince Hernandez and Reed Azevedo.  After receiving gifts from the hospital they were asked to jointly cut the anniversary cake and pose for a photograph.

Also recognized were Bev Brownell who was a charter member of the first Pink Ladies Auxiliary at the facility; physicians Dr. Richard D.M. Yee, Dr. George Veldstra, and John Reid who was the hospital administrator from the early 1970s until 1982, and along with Mick Thole whose father Ralph Thole was the founder of the Manteca and Oakdale hospitals.

Brownell’s two sons traveled the greatest distance to attend the anniversary.  Dan Bownell is from Reading, Pennsylvania, having worked in food service for two hospitals on the East Coast and later as a funeral director.  Brother Steven is from Peru, Maine where he is a regional pastor for four Seventh-Day Adventist churches. 

The late August Knodt, who served on the original staff as the hospital’s X-ray technician, was remembered through his two adult children at the anniversary, Norm Knodt and his sister Marlana.

Hospital board of directors’ chairman staff Dr. Michael Davis has been with the facility for the past 27 years.  He told the crowd that the hospital had only 49 beds when he moved to Manteca in 1987 adding that the intensive care unit had another four beds at that time.

Davis remembered that the emergency room was staffed by one nurse. If a physician was required,  he was called by the nurse and would leave his office to serve the hospital’s needs.

He said at the time Dr. Robert Lee was chief of staff and there were some 20 doctors who were actively practicing in Manteca.  Of those six were related to one another as father and son.  Those teams included Dr. Richard Yee and Dr. Randall Yee, Dr. Russell Carter, Sr. and Dr. Russell Carter, Jr., Dr. Andrew Lin and Dr. Stephen Lin.

Davis went on to say that Dr. Craig Bobson was a native son as was Dr. Sam Kakoris who joined the other practitioners in 1997.

It was in 1977 that the original Manteca Hospital became associated with National Medical Enterprises (NME) when the name was changed to Doctors Hospital of Manteca.  Eleven years later NME took on the largest expansion program in the physical plant with the addition of a two-story medical wing, a true intensive care unit and an enlarged and fully functional emergency room with the help of Dr. Karl Wolf, M.D.

The expansion included a radiology department designed with the anticipation of a CT scanner, separate OR and OB suites, an Endoscopy suite and a community conference center, the chairman of the board recalled.

The hospital has grown to offer 73 beds from the original 49 and boasts a 24-hour around the clock, physician-staffed emergency room with an eight bed ICU and a total of nearly 160 physicians on staff along with some 340 hospital employees.

Davis proudly noted that Doctors has consistently been listed in the U.S. News and World Report magazine as being among the Best Performing Community Hospitals and included in Thomson-Reuters top 100 hospitals.  He added that it is a center of excellence for breast cancer management and has continually ranked among the best Tenet Corporation Hospitals.