Press Releases
Paramedic Training Back on Track
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Back on Task: Training captain John Gilliam holds a 2009 award for dedicated service and teaching from Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic and EMS. Following back surgery, he has resumed training paramedics.
Paramedic training at Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic and EMS is back on track . . . because the trainer has his back on track.
Instead of starting the institution’s second paramedic class as planned last September, EMS training captain John Gilliam found himself entering Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City for a major procedure.
Two years of increasingly intolerable back pain had led to a radical lumbar fusion with instrumentation (a spinal fusion).
“The bottom disk in my back was removed and fused. I have metal and a cadaver bone in me. They had to break my hip – the iliac crest in my pelvis. They got soft new bone from inside and used it as mortar for placing the cadaver bone that had been donated to me. Screws and brackets hold that in place,” Gilliam explained.
The five-hour procedure was followed by six days in the hospital, then four months of healing at home. Ambulatory for the first month with a walker, then with a cane, and, at last, unaided, Gilliam was finally released to return to work in mid-January.
The postponed paramedic class launched February 1. Seven students – four at the EMS/hospital training center in Marietta and three at the EMS/fire brigade station...
Top PA Graduate Joins Clinic
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Tamra Morrow
Drop-in patients have a new option at Mercy Health/Love County clinic.
A physician assistant has joined the clinic specifically for sick people who are unable to obtain a same-day appointment with their regular practitioner.
“We welcome walk-in patients. They can now be seen in the clinic instead of going to the emergency room most weekdays,” said clinic director Connie Barker.
For most convenience, patients can arrange a same-day appointment with the new PA by calling 276-2400, Barker added.
Tamra Morrow brings elite credentials to the job. The Ardmore native graduated in December 2009 at the top of her class from the PA program at the OU Health Sciences Center.
She was one of only two students to make straight A’s in the demanding curriculum of physiology, anatomy, and pharmacology – about 75% of what first and second year medical students cover. She received a Master of Health Practice degree.
Physician assistants are trained to make decisions, diagnose, and treat, but always practice under a physician-supervisor.
Dr. Larry D. Powell is Morrow’s supervising physician.
During clinical training, Morrow did rotations in Norman, Ardmore, and Lawton in specialties such as orthopedics, cardiovascular surgery, urology, and eye/ear/nose/throat.
But, in the end, general practice in a small town won her heart, mainly, she said, as the result of a definitive rotation at Mercy...
Doctors Draw from Lab Tests Most of All
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
Testing Daily: Medical technologists in the laboratory of Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic, and EMS include (front) Gay Galano, Olivia Sunga, Elmer Denoso, and (back) Carolene Thompson, laboratory services director Kelvin McMillan, and Dunhill Casipong. Not pictured: Richard Acayan, medical technologist, Tad Hall, PA, and Dr. Ron Fattor.
Laboratory tests are the most frequently-performed procedures at Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic and EMS.
More than 100,000 exams will be administered to patients this year.
They are basic parts of routine checkups and ongoing care.
Medical technologists check samples of blood, urine, and body tissues to help doctors diagnose medical conditions and monitor diseases.
“The lab is here to confirm or refute a diagnosis. We are here to help the doctor. Our relationship with the patient is to collect the sample. The doctor goes over test results with the patient,” explained Kelvin McMillan, who became fulltime laboratory services director in October.
McMillan and his wife, Ava, a medical histology/pathology assistant, are longtime Marietta residents and have 30 years of experience in laboratory advisement.
Their most recent engagement, prior to joining Mercy Health System, involved setting up a laboratory in a new prison hospital in Lindsay.
Ava continues to advise laboratories, particularly in the complicated area of federal regulations.
The...
Love County Division Exceeds United Way Goal
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Drive Tops Goal: United Way chair Daren Flanagan (right) celebrates results with (left) Don Sessions, assistant drive chair; Greg Winchester, Red River Valley REA; Linda Briggs, Chickasaw Nation legislator; and Richard Barker, Mercy Health/Love County.
For the fourth autumn in a row, Daren Flanagan of Flanagan/Watts Funeral Home, has overseen a goal-busting United Way drive.
The Love County division contributed a total of $13,531, surpassing its target of $12,500.
“Generous individuals and companies met these goals. I am grateful to everyone who contributed. They will see their dollars at work in our local community,” Flanagan said.
The overall 5-county drive received $857,075.
The United Way assists 29 non-profit agencies in southern Oklahoma, ranging from Boy Scouts, Red Cross, and Legal Aid to drug addiction centers, child abuse services, battered women’s shelters, counseling agencies, homeless assistance, and emergency medical services.
The leading corporate contributor in Love County was Chickasaw Nation, followed by Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic and EMS, Red River Valley REA, First National Bank, and Marietta Lions Club.
Film X-rays Made To Disappear At Hospital Radiology Department
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Speedy X-Ray: Elijah Churchill, 3, has a chest x-ray with assistance from his mother, Jamie Churchill. Elijah was one of the first patients to benefit when imaging plates replaced film in the creation of x-rays at Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic and EMS. He is the great-grandson of the late Sue Cavitt of the hospital staff.
The radiology department at the hospital recently switched from film x-rays to digital x-rays, and that’s been just fine with Elijah Churchill.
The lively three-old has been recovering from bilateral pneumonia since April.
Though he tries to cooperate, sitting still with his arms over his head while radiologists take chest x-rays can be asking just a bit much.
The slightest movement or misalignment can ruin an x-ray and require the process to be repeated, said technologist Roseann Johnston.
The harder part used to be staying on the x-ray table for results – until the film could be developed, no one knew whether a re-take would be necessary.
But in September, Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic and EMS did away with film, the darkroom, and chemical processing in favor of phosphor imaging plates that can be quickly converted into digital files for instant viewing.
The technologists looked at Elijah’s most recent chest x-ray on a computer screen within seconds after taking it and declared him good to go.
Now Elijah and his mother, Jamie Churchill of...