Faith-filled doctor new head of medicine at CHRISTUS-Spohn

Dr. Osbert Blow and Dr. Nelly Garcia Blow at his commissioning ceremony as President and Chief Medical Officer of the CHRISTUS Spohn Health System inside the new chapel in the North Tower on May 24. See more photos below.  

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Dr. Osbert Blow tried to ignore that nagging voice telling him that he was going to be a doctor. He really tried. He started rowing as a student at Columbia University and wanted to free up a little more time for exploring the sport, but he just could not get the “doctor stuff” out of his system. He decided he needed to take care of it once and for all. 

He donned a suit and went to the local hospital to volunteer, asking the coordinator to put him in the worst possible situation she could. He reasoned that if he had a bad experience, he would never want to be a doctor. He landed in the coronary care unit, greeted by a militaristic charge nurse who led him immediately to a patient room where there was a “Code Brown.” 

As he helped to clean up feces in his suit, and looked into the eyes of the suffering woman, he was struck by the sentiment that he had never felt more useful in his life. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the Coastal Bend community, his rowing career never took off after that.

The recently commissioned President and Chief Medical Officer of the CHRISTUS Spohn Health System wakes up every morning grateful to God for his family, his career, and even for the difficult times in his life. A lifelong Catholic, he practices faithfully and unapologetically with his wife, Dr. Nelly Garcia Blow, by his side. 

“I feel very blessed to be able to work in a faith-based institution,” he recounts. He has been working at CHRISTUS Spohn in some capacity since 2000 and considers it a great blessing that the board and the people of the Corpus Christi community have placed their trust in him to apply his personal and professional knowledge to the leadership of the hospital. 

He was especially pleased to have Bishop Michael Mulvey at his commissioning. “It had a special feel to it; it was a great moment and you could really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit,” he recalled. He sees this new role reflecting the words of the parable of the wise and faithful stewards of Luke 12:48: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

His goal for this position is nothing more complicated than the mission statement of CHRISTUS Spohn: “To extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.” He also is dedicated to the core values of the hospital, which include dignity, integrity, excellence, compassion and stewardship. He understands that it’s easier to say than to practice, however. 

“As you translate that into business, you don’t compromise any of those important core values, but you also have to be cognizant and realistic that we live in a secular world,” he admitted. His antidote for this goes back to the direction and principles of Catholic teaching: Stand for what you are and be consistent. Be transparent. Communicate and engage in the community on all levels. He wants everyone who works for and with CHRISTUS Spohn to feel that they have made the right decision by fostering their desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

It’s easy to look at the practice of medicine through this noble lens of human dignity, but the reality is that it is often difficult or frustrating to deal with the medical system as a patient. Dr. Blow said that the most important thing to look for in a doctor is someone who is going to listen to you. 

“I had a wonderful professor who always told me if you listen to your patients carefully enough, they will tell you what their disease is,” he said. Of course, it isn’t often possible for doctors, to spend the time that they would like with patients. “Medicine, as a business, has interfered with the business of medicine.” 

He recognizes that medicine is an art and that no one person is the same, so a good medical history and a physical are of the utmost importance. His goal is to keep working to find a way to allow doctors to deliver the best care to everyone who comes to them. 

The most important training Dr. Blow has received, however, is prayer. When he was doing his Trauma residency at the University of Virginia-Charlottesville, he had a young woman come in after being pushed under a car by the side of the highway. They were working with her, but she wasn’t doing well. She was in the ICU with a multi-system injury and should have died immediately, but she didn’t. She coded again and again, and Dr. Blow worked hard each time to bring her back. 

The staff started to ask him why he didn’t move on, and he told them he wasn’t ready to say to her children that she wasn’t coming home because he got tired. As he prayed at her bedside, an anesthesiologist came in, referencing an article from a medical journal he read, told him about a steroid treatment that may help the woman’s situation. Dr. Blow started the treatment, and slowly, the woman began showing signs of recovery. A year later, when she came in for an outpatient procedure, he was able to meet her children who he had been thinking of and praying for that day. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t pray about everything I do,” he said, “and it pays off.”