Russell Blattner

Russell Blattner, July 3, 1908 - December 6, 2002, was a pediatrician and the founding physician-in-chief of Texas Children's Hospital.

In 1947 Dr. Russell Blattner was named Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. Through this position he was able to help plan and implement the founding of Texas Children's Hospital, which is currently the largest children's hospital in the United States.

Dr. Blattner served as physician-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital from 1954 until 1977, when he was replaced by Dr. Ralph Feigin. One of Dr. Blattner's first notable decisions was to allow parents to stay with children during hospitalization. Allowing parents to remain with their hospitalized children has been widely adopted by other hospitals since then.