JOPLIN, MO (KCTV) -
More than 2,000 people suddenly had nowhere to go to work after an EF5 tornado wiped out what was St. John's Regional Medical Center.
Joplin is tearing the building down, but just a short distance away there is new life at a new hospital.
However, the name has changed to Mercy Hospital Joplin, a brand new bustling healthcare facility.
"We've gone from a tent to trailer units to now we're in a permanent hospital that is safe and feels and looks like a permanent home," said Scott Watson with Mercy Hospital Joplin.
And just about a month ago, a major milestone came in a small package when little Isiah Barret Mott arrived. He was the first baby born at the new hospital.
"I think it signifies the rebirth of our hospital. We did some wonderful things in the Johnson building, the small hospital we had next to us. But this is real, a real hospital and it feels that way," Mercy obstetrics manager Kathy Cowley said.
But to fully appreciate the joy in this new hospital, one has to remember the pain of May 22, 2011.
"When I got home that night at 4:30 a.m., my wife said, 'How is it?' And I said, 'It is gone. It's all gone,'"Watson said.
Five patients and one visitor died at St. John's Hospital, and suddenly, Joplin's largest employer was without a home.
"We have so many people who've worked here 25, 30 years. Some people have spent their entire life here at that building, spent more time here than they did at home, so when that was gone, it was much like a death in the family that just caused us great heartache," Watson said.
Even as the new Mercy Hospital is now up and running, it is the hospital's temporary home.
Construction is under way on the nine-story, 800,000 square-foot state-of-the-art hospital, which is expected to open in 2015. The hospital just received a gift of $5 million from the United Arab Emirates, the same nation that donated $1 million for Joplin students to have laptops.
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