Dianna Franco, B.S.N., R.N., sometimes reveals to co-workers and patients at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas that, in addition to her work as a registered nurse working with high-risk pregnancies in the hospital’s Margo Perot Center, she is also a unique trivia answer.
“It’s kind of one of those things I take pride in,” Franco said.
Because in 1966, when the brand new hospital was just one building, labor and delivery was on the second floor. A crib card record from December of that year shows that a little girl listed as “Baby Blessing” was one of the very first babies born in the hospital’s first year. Sixty years later, Dianna “Blessing” Franco works to help other expectant moms at the very hospital where she took her first breath.
“For me it is truly a calling; it is something that I’m supposed to be doing,” Franco said. “Not for the money, not for the hours. I do it because it is truly what I love.”
As much as she loves her job, Dianna will admit that not all the memories here are happy ones.
“Kind of a late diagnosis, so, it was quick,” she said of the cancer diagnosis for her mom, Sheridan “Sherry” Blessing, who had some of her final treatments at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas too.
“The care that she received here later on in life is what is more emotional for me,” she said, “than actually thinking back of me being born here.”
In that hallway in Perot North, the nurses are immortalized in an AI photo display as the “superheroes” they truly are. Dianna is recognized as the resident “supply chain captain.”
And as the hospital celebrates its 60th year, Dianna celebrates her unique role in its history – and the love she has found for her profession.
“I just love being able to take care of people and fix them. Or at least comfort someone. Make them feel better.”
The hospital, and the mom who brought her into the world at this hospital, can both be proud of that.
“It’s just what I feel I’m meant to be, and do.”
Working at Texas Health also runs in the family. Franco’s husband was a pharmacy technician, and her daughter was a patient care technician who eventually became a nurse at Texas Health Dallas. Her daughter now works at Texas Health Hospital Rockwall.
“Franco’s journey reflects the deep connection our nurses have with this hospital and the community we have served over the past 60 years,” said Michele Spieler, MBA, B.S.N., R.N., NEA-BC, chief nursing officer at Texas Health Dallas. “Together, our care teams will continue to carry this legacy forward for generations to come.”