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Karen Teel, MD

Karen Teel, MD, 84, died of of advocacy…which ensures that a child’s rights are
natural causes on April 24. Raised observed.” Teel’s article was cited by the New Jersey
in small towns in Oklahoma and Supreme Court in its 1977 decision approving the
West Texas, she graduated from removal of Karen Ann Quinlan’s ventilator. For her
Baylor College of Medicine in 1963, contributions to the field of bioethics, Teel earned the
one of only three women in her class. Annual Award for Distinction in Bioethics from the
After training in pediatrics with a International Bioethics Institute in San Francisco in 1992.
fellowship in infectious disease, she moved to Austin, was Perhaps her greatest civic contribution was the role
appointed staff pediatrician and later Chief of Pediatrics she played as a leader in the grassroots effort to establish
at Bergstrom Air Force Base, followed by five years the Children’s Hospital of Austin. In the early 1970s,
as Director of Pediatric Education at Brackenridge Brackenridge Hospital had only four in-patient pediatric
Hospital where she developed Austin’s first pediatric beds. Envisioning a place of quality care for children,
residency program. In 1977, Dr. Teel began her private she skillfully drew together city leaders and colleagues to
practice of pediatrics, treating thousands of children achieve that vision. The 60-bed Children’s Hospital of
until her retirement in 2005. Those years were marked Austin (CHOA) opened in 1988 under the auspices of
by great accomplishments outside of her office as well. the city-run Brackenridge Hospital. Within a short twelve
Dr. Teel was instrumental in creating what are now years, CHOA reached its capacity. In the early 2000s, Teel
commonplace in hospitals across the country: ethics led yet another community effort with physicians and the
committees. In 1975, she proposed the idea in an article visionary and generous leadership of Michael and Susan
in Baylor Law Review, suggesting that the role of ethics Dell to build the region’s first and only stand-alone
committees was to help physicians deal with clinical- children’s hospital, Dell Children’s Medical Center.
ethical dilemmas. She expressed dismay at the “lines Dr. Teel, a friend and mentor to a generation of
(drawn by the law) beyond which the rights of parents physicians in Austin, leaves behind a legacy of
and other individuals do not extend. These lines must be competence, compassion, and the reshaping of
more clearly defined…and there must be a system healthcare for children in central Texas.

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