Mercy Hospital Joplin, formerly known as St. Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences That's what enriches me."Ĭlark told 41 Action News that if not for the tornado, she likely would have ended up somewhere else practicing medicine. When I go in and I see a patient and we happen to know the same person. The thing that brings the joy to me is when I'm treating people from my community people I know, my friends, my neighbors. “There's always going to be people in the hospital that need health care. "The tornado made me want to do medicine here," Clark said. “I think one of the greatest gifts you can do is to give back to your community, and being able to be a physician working in an underserved area, I think it really meets that need." "The medical profession is altruistic, so you want to give back,” Wilberding said. Both say the tornado they lived through is part of the reason they're still here. Wilberding was even able to work with Clark at Freeman while she was a student. He's a doctor, and she just graduated from Kansas City University Medical School in May 2021. Wilberding could only offer comfort to the grieving family.ġ0 years later, Clark and Wilberding work together. I had a child about the same age at that time." “He was lifeless, and he had massive head trauma, and you knew that he wasn't going to make it. "I had a little three-year-old child that was brought in by their parents carrying him,” Wilberding said. In the middle of that makeshift emergency room, the future doctor experienced loss that left a mark. "I had a lot of patients coming in on homemade stretchers made from their door frames, and things like that," Wilberding said. He spent hours in a Taco Bell parking lot, caring for the wounded. Her house was not severely damaged, but so many around it were lost.Īt the same time Clark’s family was trying to get home, Justin Wilberding, then a medical student, couldn't get past debris on his way into the hospital. When Clark’s family was finally able to reach their home, they got a look at the devastation. "Cell phone lines were down, we couldn't get a hold of anyone, we didn't know the extent of the damage," Clark said. Her family was forced to take shelter in a grocery store during the worst of the storm. "Siding was just flying by, tree branches were flying by," Clark said. Clark’s family was on the road home from the ceremony when the storm hit. "I remember, they started reading the names kind of faster and faster," Clark said. The students and their parents weren’t the only ones watching the weather that day. “And he got a text from his dad saying, ‘Hey it looks like there's a storm that's going to come into Joplin.’" "One of the guys that I was friends with at the time was sitting right next to me, and his dad worked in the ambulance community in the area,” Clark said. They never could have known they’d end up working together.Ĭlark's memories of her graduation from Joplin High School aren't about speeches or tassels. Justin Wilberding was a third-year medical student who ended up caring for patients in a parking lot. Cali Clark graduated high school the day the tornado hit. Two such stories are from doctors working at Freeman Health System. In addition to the massive changes made to the local hospitals, it also altered the lives of every doctor and nurse who lived through it. The impact that the 2011 Joplin tornado had on the city’s medical community can't be overstated.
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