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UT Southwestern Frisco brings nurse anesthetist back to her roots

Nurse anesthetist Christal Grandell has deep connections to the city of Frisco.

Many UT Southwestern employees already have deep connections to the city of Frisco. A new video series showcases several of these employees, including nurse anesthetist Christal Grandell who grew up in Frisco. Her father, George Purefoy, is the city's one and only city manager. When UTSW at Frisco opens on Dec. 3, it will help her fulfill a childhood dream – to help care for the people of the city that her father helped build. 

Learn more about the developments at UT Southwestern Frisco here.

Transcript

My name is Christal Grandell and I'm a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist at UT Southwestern. I've lived in Frisco since I was 5 years old. My dad was the city manager of Columbus, Texas, which was a small town of about 5,000 people. It was home, but he wanted a challenge. So one day he got out a map of the state of Texas and found the North Dallas Toll Road and used his finger, followed it up, and it landed on Frisco, Texas. He was the first city manager that Frisco ever hired and it was just a small town that welcomed me and my parents with open arms. They became our family very quickly. Medicine just always fascinated me. I loved playing nurse and playing doctor and all that stuff. I decided to go the nursing route because I really love people. Anything and everything that there is, major life events, we get to be a part of. We bring babies into the world and I think that's so cool that I get invited into these precious, exclusive moments in people's life. I always said that it would just be my honor and privilege to get to take care of the people that raised me and that's Frisco. I think the people of Frisco will be so excited to have UT Southwestern local and easy to get to. I say, finally, there's somewhere that I have all the confidence in the world to send everybody that I love. I'm so proud of my dad. He is the most humble, considerate servant, would give you every shirt he had off of his back, and to see that the people around him, and all the people in Frisco have just run toward the same thing, which is to create the best city in the world and succeed. I don't think that there's a better honor than that. When I stand here and I look out the window of Frisco City Hall, what I see is a community full of people that deserve the very best that this world has to offer. There's so much more to Frisco than buildings and even Sports City, U.S.A., but the heart is care and compassion and I think that's what UT Southwestern is going to bring to Frisco. 

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