Vol. 11, Issue 1

Diagnostica Stago Responds to Joplin Tornado

On May 22, 2011, St. John's Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri, along with a significant portion of the surrounding community, was besieged by a powerful and deadly EF-5 tornado. Although the St. John's staff was trained to respond to "code grey" alarms, the tornado's strength was far beyond anyone's expectations for the area. Patient safety was a top priority as the winds tore the hospital apart and flying debris turned into dangerous shrapnel.

St. John's Medical Center in the wake of a deadly EF5 tornado. Image courtesy of Jennifer Browne, Diagnostica Stago.

In the wake of the tornado's destruction, the building was in ruins, and the hospital suffered six casualties, mostly due to respiratory failure when the power went out and the backup generator was ripped from the roof. Every floor, and every department, suffered damage, yet hospital staff had no time to survey the damage as they quickly regrouped to evacuate and care for existing patients and prepare for substantial incoming injuries sustained elsewhere in Joplin.

Destruction throughout St. John's Medical Center. Image sources unknown.

Tents were erected to triage and care for the injured and sick with the limited supplies that the hospital could find. Meanwhile, while listening to news coverage, Don Vierling, Diagnostica Stago's warehouse shipping supervisor in Mount Olive, New Jersey, recognized St. John's as a Stago customer and alerted senior management. At around the same time, local Account Manager Greg Goodwin made contact with St. John's Coagulation Supervisor to see how Stago could help.

Temporary tents erected at St. John's Medical Center. Image sources unknown.

Help was indeed needed, and Diagnostica Stago quickly responded. An STA Compact^® Hemostasis Analyzer was processed and shipped immediately, and six months of reagents were donated. Dave Lane, Director of Supply Chain and Sales Administration contacted Jeff Rossier President of Trade Show Technologies, who agreed to donate the truck and driver to deliver the STA Compact to St John's hospital.

Stago field personnel coordinated the STA Compact installation on-site at St. John's makeshift hospital, and worked with other local hospitals to procure correlation samples needed for method validation.

One hospital that assisted in St. John’s method validation was the Henry Medical Center (HMC) in Stockbridge, Georgia. Jennifer Browne, Stago’s Southern Regional Technical Support Specialist, contacted HMC’s Hematology Supervisor Edie Carden asking about blood samples from HMC’s recent, annual instrument validation.

Edie Carden, Hematology Supervisor in the HMC Laboratory, at work with the Stago lab instrument. Image courtesy of Henry Medical Center, Stockbridge, GA. Caption courtesy of The Henry County Times, McDonough, GA.

Carden explains, “I had been saving specimens for a month so I could do the required study to maintain the accreditation of our Stago instrument. Well, our data and our instrument and our study were so good that when the hospital in Joplin needed quality, controlled specimens to test its new instrument, our rep called on us to provide them. For some reason, I still had mine. I hadn’t thawed them or thrown them out or anything.”

The specimens were carefully packed and shipped to Joplin. Browne picked up the samples at the airport and delivered them to the hospital’s makeshift laboratory where Stago Field Service Engineer Debbie Hayden was performing the instrument installation. Hayden noted during the installation process, "Although the area resembled a war zone, with nothing but small piles of rubble where houses stood and trees completely absent of leaves as far as the eye can see, everyone in the lab seemed to be in good spirits."

Within two weeks of the disastrous tornado - including shipping, installation and method validation - St. John's Medical Center was reporting hemostasis results, and continues patient care while looking to rebuild in a new location.

In addition to the corporate response, Stago employees responded on a personal level. One such example is Stago's Regional Support Engineer Doug Attaway. He and his family volunteered at their McKinney, Texas church, collecting supplies and non-perishable food for the Joplin community. Their collections filled a tractor-trailer, and Doug and other volunteers drove from McKinney to Joplin to deliver the supplies and lend a hand.

Diagnostica Stago CEO, Dr. Stephane Zamia, noted that the team effort, volunteering, and quick response, "reflects more than anything else, our company values."

Information on HMC and Edie Carden courtesy of Henry Medical Center, Stockbridge, GA., and The Henry County Times, McDonough, GA.