![]() “It’s not enough to do the surgeries and heal the broken bones and the fractures and all of those injuries.”Įven as a veteran nurse with 27 years experience, Freeman’s Leslie Allen says her May 22 memories are hard to forget, but Joplin’s steady efforts to clean up and rebuild are therapeutic. “We have people who before their very eyes saw people die – maybe their own family members, had loved ones ripped out of their arms,” Baker said. Paula Baker, president and CEO of Freeman Health System, says the Joplin community is learning that behavioral health cannot be ignored following a catastrophe. Three years later, the hospital has also fine-tuned its emergency response procedures, but recovery runs much deeper than plans on paper. With their combined experience and new equipment, the hospital says it can now set up another facility for 125 beds and be up and running in less than an hour. A retired ambulance has new life as a mobile command vehicle, packed with communications gear, including a direct radio line to the Missouri Dept. “Now I have people come to me and say, ‘Skip, can we try this, we’re concerned about this.’”įreeman Hospital learned just how vital phones and the Internet are to operating efficiently and safely. “There were times when you used to have to beg people to participate in your exercises and events,” according to Skip Harper, environmental and health safety officer at the Joplin hospital. One official credits a disaster drill conducted just days before the storm as a lifesaver after the tornado hit. Twelve hours and 27 surgeries later, Freeman Hospital regained its collective composure, and only one ER patient died that night. “Elbow to elbow, limping, body parts hanging, wraps to control bleeding they were just shoulder-to-shoulder, and it looked like a scene out of a horror movie,” Allen said. At nearby Freeman Hospital, veteran nurse Leslie Allen and the emergency room were inundated with the injured. John’s Hospital in Joplin, now known as Mercy, was ravaged beyond repair on May 22, 2011. Both communities lost a hospital in their storms, and Joplin’s new health care facilities are signs of overall recovery and revival. This May marked the three-year anniversary of the EF-5 tornado that hit Joplin, Mo., just across the Oklahoma border. remembered the one-year anniversary of the deadly tornado that ripped through their community by breaking ground on a new hospital, they could also look toward the state's northeast corner for a symbol of hope. ‘Scripture tells us that the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day,’ Nixon said.As residents of Moore, Okla. Jay Nixon told those at the Freeman Hospital service that Tuesday’s tranquil dawn reflected the sense of renewal and hope in Joplin since the May 22, 2011, tornado that killed 161 people and injured hundreds of others. history carved through the city exactly one year ago. – Joplin began a day of solemn remembrance Tuesday with a sunrise service to honor the hospital staff, emergency workers and other survivors who sprang into action when one of the deadliest tornados in U.S. The tornado killed 161 people and destroyed one-third of the city, making it the nation's deadliest single tornado in six decades. The laterns were in remembrance of the tornado victims. Renee Denton, director for medical oncology and pediatrics at Freeman Hospital, releases a lantern Tuesday during Morning Has Broken event at Freeman Hospital. ![]()
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