A family that gives together

With ties to Children’s Health and UT Southwestern, the Miller family pledges $10 million to support the new Dallas pediatric campus 

At 6 weeks old, Harris looked even tinier than the newborn baby he was while tucked into a giant hospital room surrounded by a force of beeping machines. And at his bedside sat his grandparents, Carolyn and David Miller, and parents, Katy and Kyle Miller.

"We weren’t sure from one day to the next whether we were going to lose him. That was the most difficult time I’ve had in my entire life,” David said. “I’ll never forget going into that hospital every morning and listening and watching the physicians, medical students and nurses care for him.”    

Katy and Kyle initially thought their youngest of three just had a really bad cold, when they brought him into the pediatrician several weeks after he was born. But soon after, Katy and baby Harris were in a racing ambulance.  The destination: Children’s Medical Center Dallas.  

Harris had RSV – a respiratory virus that is the leading cause of infant hospitalization in the U.S. The condition developed into pneumonia, and he was admitted to Children’s Health in Dallas for nine days.    

Katy and Kyle were already very familiar with the hospital system. Their older two daughters are patients in the Children’s Health Allergy and Immunology Program, where pediatric allergist, J. Andrew Bird, M.D., director of the Food Allergy Center, “always took great care of them,” Katy said.    

The experience inspired Katy and Kyle to make a generous donation to the allergy clinic and join the Children’s Medical Center Foundation Board of Directors.   

“We had been exposed to the hospital before, but until Harris got sick, we hadn’t lived at the hospital,” Kyle said. “And that journey allowed us to see firsthand how the hospital operates and the level of care the doctors and nurses brought to the situation. And in a time of panic, there was a sense of calm knowing that he was in incredible hands.”   

A couple continues to give back  

Harris is now 9 years old. He loves dogs and even donated his birthday money last year to support the pet therapy program at Children’s Health.   

And for his entire life, he’s watched his parents give back to the hospital that cared for him as a baby.  

After Harris was discharged in December 2015, Katy and Kyle made a gift to renovate the public spaces in the pediatric intensive care unit, now realizing how many families drive across county and state lines for treatment at Children’s Health and live at the hospital while their children undergo care.  

And as their kids have gotten older, they’ve seen how Children’s Health has been there for their friends’ and family’s kids, too. Clinical teams who have mended broken bones; treated kids for asthma and allergies; found breakthroughs in cures for diseases where others had no answers.  

In 2019, the couple served as co-chairs of the initiative to raise funds for the renovation and expansion of the emergency department (ED) at the Dallas campus – at the time ranked the second busiest pediatric ED in the country. Katy continues to serve on the board for Children’s Medical Center Foundation and both serve on the Chairman’s Advisory Board for the Foundation.    

“We are so grateful to have a facility like Children’s Health in our backyard. We continue to see the need for the highest quality health care for children in North Texas,” Katy said. “And we continue to find ways to give back to a place that has done so much for our son.”   

Giving back as a family  

Katy and Kyle always knew that they’d be at the forefront of giving to support the new Dallas pediatric campus.  

The project, currently under construction in collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical Center, will be one of the country’s largest and most transformative pediatric hospitals to care for a growing number of kids in North Texas. 

Early on, the couple pledged their support of the new campus before there were any renderings – when the project was only a dream. But they believed in the future of Children’s Health.   

“We’re not as concerned about the brick and mortar. We know it’s going to be a top-notch facility,” Katy said. “For us, it was more about the idea and concept. We wanted to lead the way in giving and inspire others to join us.”  

The gift was a seed that quickly grew when David and Carolyn also committed to the project.  

“The care provided by UT Southwestern and Children's Health is unmatched. And now, you take two extraordinary organizations coming together to build something incredible, and you have something even better and more powerful,” said David, who currently serves as a trustee and executive committee member for Southwestern Medical Foundation, which raises funds to support the work of UT Southwestern and medical progress in our community. 

“This new campus is going to be tremendous for so many children and families not just in Dallas but for North Texas and beyond,” Carolyn said. “We are excited to be a part of making this incredible project a reality for these kids.” 

The family’s $10 million gift is the first from donors who have ties to the three organizations – Children's Health, UT Southwestern and Southwestern Medical Foundation – jointly raising funds for the project.  

“This isn’t just a gift to Children’s Health. This isn’t just a gift to UT Southwestern. The partnership between the two is what makes it impactful,” Kyle said. “And now, we have two great institutions that we’ve always supported who have come together. For us, as a family, it made sense to support this effort.”