By David Taylor / Managing Editor
After decades of building his practice in the medical offices off I-10 near the former Tidelands Hospital in Channelview, Dr. Donald Niño is expanding his practice in a new location. Niño and his staff took the week off three weeks ago and moved the practice to a strip center off Beltway 8 next to Iguana Joes.
“We still haven’t finished moving everything, but we’re very busy and have worked the last few weeks,” he said. “The ladies are still figuring out where they want to put stuff and organize.”
The new check-in, check-out rooms are finished along with a new nurse’s station, seven exam rooms, a blood drawing lab staffed by Quest, and a diagnostic lab to check samples for various illnesses immediately while patients are in exam rooms.
“This place is about 1,000 square feet larger and will soak up all that we have,” he said. His previous location didn’t give them enough room to breathe, but he got the job done.
“Previously, we had five exam rooms. Here, we have seven plus room to grow to 10,” the doctor said.
The new, more expansive space is a far cry from the Magnolia Park neighborhood where Niño grew up.
“My parents grew up there, living across the street from each other. When they got married, they moved into the house next door to my grandfather Niño, a house that he built. They were renting from him and lived across the street from the other grandparents on Avenue J,” he told the story.
Later, his parents moved to southeast Houston, closer to Hobby Airport, where he spent most of his time and graduated from Sterling High School in Houston.
His dream was to go to Rice University where his grandfather attended.
“He was one of the first Hispanic students at Rice University, or Rice Institute as it was called back then,” he said proudly. His grandfather was recruited and offered a scholarship after Rice officials saw him play basketball and led his team to the state finals.
After his grandfather graduated from Rice with a mechanical engineering degree, he opened his own shop repairing and servicing steam boilers.
“He also did the steam presses for tailor shops and big box stores like Neiman Marcus and Sackowitz. He even met Marvin Zindler before he became famous.”
When grandson Niño applied to Rice, he was accepted.
“I only applied to one school. That was where I wanted to go,” he said. He had an application for the University of Houston that he never filled out.
Niño was seeking a biology degree as a pre-med student.
“It was sort of boring academics, so I changed to a biomedical engineering degree,” he smiled. It was far more interesting and also aided his opportunity for getting into medical school.
Niño applied for University of Texas Medical School in Houston and was accepted. At medical school, he earned various opportunities for great experiences including an internship with a vascular surgeon.
Niño graduated from Rice in 1979 and entered UT Med School that fall.
“Classes at med school were easier than going to Rice,” he smiled. “At Rice, I was in engineering classes,” he said.
His first two years in med school were a routine 8-our classes each day, taking lectures and memorizing a lot of information.
“The new thing was computers and computer modeling. Having an engineering degree gave me and advantage because a lot of people didn’t know about computers then,” he described it.
His third and fourth year of med school brought valuable experience.
“It was very exciting, and I didn’t realize how much I would like it,” the doctor said. His colleagues also recognized his acuity with patients and interaction.
“I think some of that may have come from my experience working at Radio Shack as a salesman,” he smiled.
In ’86 he began his residency at Memorial Medical Center in Corpus Christi with his wife, Martha, whom he met at freshman week at Rice. They married during his second year of med school. She was from Beeville, close to Corpus. He received an exponential amount of experience from delivering babies, performing operations, and much more.
After three years there, they moved back to Houston to start a practice.
Niño met Dr. Bell and worked side by side with him until ’87 when he sold the practice to Niño.
“I went from treating four patients in a day to 40,” he laughed, “and it’s been like that ever since.”
One of his advantages is his and his staff’s ability to speak Spanish.
Niño’s philosophy was to bring Medical Center training to take care of people on the eastside like they do downtown.
He has since served on numerous prestigious boards, won awards, and a few years ago, sold his practice to Hospital Corporation of America and works for them now.
His wife Martha, who ran the practice, died after almost 30 years working in the practice.
“I thought about quitting after she died. We were together 24 hours a day. A lot of couples say they couldn’t do that, but I could with Martha,” he said.
After a week of being off recovering from the funeral, the number of phone calls wanting to see him continued to grow, and he felt like he had to return.
“It was a therapy for me,” he said, “coming back and treating patients.”
He met his new wife, Dana, at the North Shore Rotary Club and they began a friendship doing Rotary activities together. They’ve been married now for seven years. She has her own business called Phase Three and the couple continue their work with Rotary.
Niño has been a mentor to Dr. Melissa Silva and she has been the beneficiary of scholarships from North Shore Rotary. Now she is a part of the practice, seeing patients of her own and learning under the tutelage of Niño.
“I’ll keep doing this as long as I have a passion for my work,” he said, and with a new facility, he hopes that will be a long time. The Channelview Family Medicine keeps hours from Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to noon. They are located at 5616 East Sam Houston Parkway N, Houston, 77015 and can be reached at 281-452-4747.
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