Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital

Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital was founded in 1926 as the American Legion Hospital for Crippled Children to care for children with polio and other crippling disorders without regard for race, creed or ability to pay.

In 1934, Lloyd Gullickson partnered with Babe Didrikson in a charity golf match against Glenna Collett-Vare and Babe Ruth which they won quite easily. The match raised $600 for the hospital. A number of gallery members were betting which of the "Babes" would hit the longest drive on each hole.

From 1936 to 1960, the hospital expanded by more than 5,000 square feet, adding physical therapy, educational therapy, surgical facilities, a full-time school teacher, a library, and school facilities. As the threat of polio decreased, hospital leaders planned for a future that included a wider variety of services. Construction began on the new facility in 1965 on land acquired from the City of St. Petersburg.

The new hospital opened its doors in 1967 with the new name All Children's Hospital. The name was based on a quote by Carl Sandburg, which states "There is only one child in all the world, and that child's name is all children."

In 2005, All Children's broke ground on construction of a 240-bed hospital and adjoining outpatient facility. This facility opened in 2010. It consisted of a 10-floor hospital and a seven-floor outpatient care center. In 2011, All Children's Hospital joined the Johns Hopkins Health System as a fully integrated member of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

In 2016, the organization changed its name to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital and celebrated its 90th anniversary. Also in 2016, it broke ground on a $95-million Research and Education Building, which will become home to the institutes, house a new pediatric biorepository, provide lab and simulation training space, and encourage collaboration among clinicians, researchers, faculty and trainees. It will open in the fall of 2018.

In addition to the outpatient care center in St. Petersburg, the hospital has outpatient locations along Florida's west coast in Brandon, East Lake, Fort Myers, Lakeland, North Port, Pasco, Sarasota, South Tampa and Tampa.

Controversies

Heart surgery mortality

In November 2018 it was revealed that the mortality rate in its pediatric heart surgery program was very high. Surgeons in the program had lost needles in two infants’ chests and infection rates of patients spiked. The problems started after the departure of program leader Dr. James Quintessenza after hospital officials had disputes with him. The surgeons that were hired to replace Quintessenza were lackluster in their techniques and mortality rates tripled in a period of two years. Hospital officials decided to send complicated cardiac cases to other hospitals, but even routine cases also had very high mortality rates. After years of cover ups, officials at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore fired many top level hospital officials and the surgeons involved. After a detailed investigation in 2019, the Florida Department of Health fined the institution $804,000. The fine was the most any Florida hospital had ever received. The hospital has also settled with some of the 11 families affected by the program totaling around $40 million. Administrators have announced that the hospital will implement new policies and structural changes to address the core issues that allowed the troubled heart program to continue. The hospital has since started to rebuild by hiring back Quintessenza, and hiring other respected pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons.

Maya Kowalski

In October 2016, 10-year-old Maya Kowalski presented to the emergency department at All Children's Hospital with severe symptoms of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a condition of which Maya was previously diagnosed with. Doctors from the hospital did not understand Maya's condition and believed that medicines prescribed from unaffiliated doctors were too extreme. Doctors at the hospital suspected Maya was being medically abused by her mother, Beata Kowalski, as a symptom of Munchausen by proxy. Medical staff subsequently filed a report to the Florida child abuse hotline and took custody of Maya, forcibly barring Maya from seeing her parents. After multiple months without access, Beata committed suicide.

In late September 2023, a lawsuit by Maya Kowalski's father, Jack Kowalski, went to trial on behalf of Maya Kowalski, seeking $220 million in damages. The lawsuit accused the hospital of imprisoning Maya in state custody and withholding contact from her parents for a period of three months, accused a hospital social worker of sexual abuse, and mental and psychological abuse by hospital staff during her 3-month stay at All Children's.

On November 9, 2023, a Florida jury found in favor of the Kowalski family and awarded them $261 million in damages after 3 days of deliberations. The damages ordered to pay was later reduced to $213.5 million by a judge, who rejected a motion for a retrial. This lawsuit was documented in Take Care of Maya, released on Netflix in June of the same year. In October 2025, a Florida appeals court overturned the entire verdict, clearing the pathway to a new trial.