A $1,000 donation from the Bess Spiva Timmons Foundation and an additional $600 from the Texas County Healthcare Foundation helped Texas County Memorial Hospital recently purchase an Olympus CH-30 microscope for the hospital’s laboratory.
The new microscope has greater magnification available and will reduce time needed to analyze white blood cells by 3-5 minutes.
“Our lab will use this new microscope about 750 times each month,” said Kirby Holmes, the TCMH laboratory supervisor. “It will replace a microscope that’s been in use in the lab since the 1980s.”
Tim Spears, son of the late Dr. Joe L. Spears, assisted in obtaining the funding for TCMH through his family’s foundation. Dr. Spears was a long-time family practice physician from the Cabool area and past president of the Timmons Foundation Board.
“My father cared deeply about the health of his community, and our family is very proud of his work as a physician and civic leader,” Tim Spears said. “After decades of service he spent great effort to bring in several young doctors to the area to continue to provide quality care.”
The foundation board of directors voted to provide the additional funding needed to go with the Timmons Foundation donation to purchase the microscope.
“This gift from the Timmons Foundation assisted the TCMH Healthcare Foundation with reaching our goal of providing new technology for the hospital,” said Jay Gentry, foundation director. “We are grateful for the Timmons Foundation’s recognition of the efforts made at TCMH to remain progressive and up-to-date with our technology in order to better meet the healthcare needs of Texas County.”
Upon Dr. Spears’ retirement from private practice, he continued to advocate for healthcare in rural areas as wide reaching as the Navajo Nation’s Hospital and Flying Physicians, an organization which set up rural clinics in Mexican towns.
“We at the Timmons Foundation wish to honor my father’s example with this gift of support to the TCMH Healthcare Foundation,” Tim Spears said. “We are grateful for those in Texas County that continue his work.”