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By Susan Nicol, EMSWorld.com News Tornado Wreaks Havoc on Missouri Town WHEN ST. JOHN’S Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri, took a direct hit by an F-5 tornado on May 23, staff and EMS crews quickly evacuated patients from the twisted, mangled structure. In 90 minutes, they had evacuated 183 patients from their debris-strewn rooms. Another 30 waiting for care in the emergency depart- ment also were assisted in leaving the building. Patients were hauled in the backs of pickup trucks, as well as ambulances, and were taken to a number of facilities, including the city’s other Level II trauma center, part of the Freeman Health System, and hospitals in other regions. “Sadly, fi ve patients in the ICU, located on one of the top fl oors of the hospital, and one visitor were killed,” says Dr. Sean Smith, an emergency physician at St. John’s and the county’s EMS medical director. Smith credits local EMS crews and hospital staff for the quick and effi cient evacuation that Sunday evening. “They (hospital personnel) had 9–12 minutes’ notice (that a tornado was possible),” he says. “They did what they could to move patients out of their rooms, away from windows, but there was so little time.” Medical records and equipment were sucked up by the tornado and depos- ited throughout a wide area around Joplin. Hospital offi cials sent messages via the local media on how to return documents. Smith said when you see the amount of destruc- tion, it’s amazing how many patients, staff and visitors survived. Windows were shattered, medical equip- ment and devices were destroyed, water poured from broken pipes, patients’ beds were tossed around. The power was out, and the backup generator failed due to the horrifi c conditions. Smith was in a storm room in his house with his wife and sons when he received a text about the hospital taking the hit. “I sent some texts to others, but knew everyone would be heading in,” he says. Debris blocked streets and roads, and the usual 22-minute trip took Smith more than 90 minutes. “I had to walk for the last mile,” he says, “and I wasn’t the only one who abandoned their car.” Smith said he can’t say enough about the EMS crews from Jasper and Newton counties. “Our EMS crews here are superb and work together all the time.They have the same protocols. They work as a team every day, not just on big incidents. There aren’t any territorial issues between them.” Mutual aid companies throughout the region also sent crews to assist; however, getting to the hospital wasn’t easy for them either because of the roads. Personnel knew Freeman Health would be overwhelmed with the infl ux of transfers and people injured by the tornado, so they headed to a nearby civic center two blocks away to set up a makeshift clinic. “Our staff scavenged anything they could that was NEWS NETWORK Six people were killed in St. John’s Regional Medical Center, which was completely destroyed by the F-5 tornado on May 23. The Center’s emergency department is pictured below. Scenes of devastation surrounded St. John’s. still OK and ran up the street to Memorial Hall,” says Smith. “They were incred- ible. We treated more than 125 patients there. We had a cardiac arrest and a number of other priority 1 patients, as well as people with head and chest injuries. Some needed to be intubated.” One helicopter based at St. John’s was destroyed. Photos courtesy Mercy Health EMSWORLD.com | JULY 2011 15