Aline Thomas was born inside The University of Kansas Hospital in 1947, and nearly two decades later, on August 16, 1966, she walked back through its doors as a 19-year-old new hire. Six decades later, at age 79, she is still there, working as a surgical technologist in the hospital's burn unit, and she says she has no intention of stopping anytime soon.
A Six-Decade Journey Through One Hospital
Known to colleagues as “Miss A,” Thomas has held several positions across her tenure at the hospital, according to KSHB 41 Kansas City. She attended school at the hospital itself and worked her way up to her current role as a surgical technologist, where she now works primarily inside the burn unit. Thomas has described the hospital as her life, saying her journey lasted six decades and allowed her to advance and touch different people's lives, per the same account.
The station reports that Thomas has helped thousands of people over the course of her career. She has also experienced deeply personal loss inside the same walls where she works: Thomas lost both of her sons and her mother at the hospital, according to the report.
Confronting Prejudice Early In Her Career
Thomas has also spoken about experiencing prejudice from doctors during her employment, the station notes. Her hiring came just one month after Medicare's July 1966 rollout, a period when U.S. healthcare facilities were undergoing mandatory racial desegregation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — a transition era when Black hospital workers frequently encountered racial hostility from physicians and staff, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Theresa Thomas, the Bell operating room manager, told the station that Miss A's 60-year milestone deserved recognition. She considers Miss A an exceptional mentor, saying she has compassion, listens, and lets learners learn. Theresa Thomas added that Miss A's presence in the burn unit is unlike anyone else's.
Inside The Region's Only Accredited Burn Center
Thomas's daily work takes place in what Theresa Thomas described as a very tough operating room with very hot conditions, per KSHB 41. That unit, the Gene and Barbara Burnett Burn Center, is the only burn care facility in Kansas and the Greater Kansas City metropolitan area accredited for both adult and pediatric care by the American Burn Association and the American College of Surgeons, according to The University of Kansas Health System. The center treats more than 330 burn survivors in a typical year, delivering care for complex thermal, chemical, and electrical injuries that often require hyperbaric oxygen therapy and reconstructive surgery.
As a surgical technologist, Thomas's responsibilities fall within guidelines set by the Association of Surgical Technologists and the American College of Surgeons, which define the role as a key operating room position responsible for maintaining the sterile field, organizing back tables and Mayo stands, tracking surgical counts, and passing sterile tools to surgeons during operations, according to the Association of Surgical Technologists. Nationally, roughly 486,000 burn injuries require emergency medical treatment each year, with the most severe cases demanding the kind of multi-disciplinary surgical, physical, and psychological care the Burnett center provides, per the American Burn Association. According to a National Institutes of Health PubMed Central-hosted article citing the American Burn Association, 486,000 burn injuries were reported in 2016.
Watching Miracles Unfold
Thomas has said that seeing burn patients walk again is like seeing miracles come alive, according to KSHB 41's report. She considers passing on her knowledge to newer staff just as important as her own clinical work, and she shares that knowledge freely with others coming up behind her. She has said she plans to remain at the hospital as long as she can do her job and help others learn.
Thomas's decision to keep working well past traditional retirement age fits into a broader national shift. The participation rate for Americans aged 75 and older is projected to reach 10.2% by 2034, making that group the fastest-growing age demographic in the U.S. workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Federal labor studies also indicate that over 74% of currently employed U.S. adults plan to work past traditional retirement age, driven by changes in pension structures, longer life expectancy, and high demand for experienced personnel in hands-on healthcare roles.
A Hospital With Deep Roots
The hospital where Thomas has spent her entire career has its own long history. The clinical origins of The University of Kansas Health System trace back to 1906, when the original 35-bed Eleanor Taylor Bell Memorial Hospital opened in Rosedale, Kansas, before the system expanded into its current medical center campus at 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard, according to the University of Kansas Medical Center. According to the University of Kansas Health System's official history, the hospital became an independent hospital authority in 1998. That same campus is now home to a $575 million destination cancer center expansion that broke ground in May 2025, one of the largest capital projects in the health system's history, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of a recent gala benefiting KU Cancer Center.
Sixty years after she first arrived as a teenager born within its walls, Thomas remains a fixture in that same growing institution — still scrubbing in, still teaching, and by her own account, still finding meaning in every patient she helps walk again.
