Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic

First Air Evac Copter Arrives: An emergency helicopter settled to
earth on the emergency room’s just-completed helipad on September 10.
(Photo by Dustin Michael)

Emergency Room Helipad: County Commissioner Stacy Rushing and
workers from District 3 constructed a helipad outside the new
emergency building at Mercy Health Love County Hospital on September 9.

Less than 24 hours after it was constructed, a helipad outside the new emergency room at Mercy Health Love County experienced its first touch-down.

An air ambulance was summoned for a patient about 11 a.m. on September 10. The helipad had been finished mid-afternoon on September 9.

County Commissioner Stacy Rushing and workers from District 3 assisted the Love County EMS & Fire Brigade in the construction.

First the EMS manager Dustin Michael and operations chief Tracy Walker framed a landing area and walkway. The workers filled the frames with gravel then overlay that with asphalt.

The asphalt was donated by Overland Corporation, according to Jessica Crosthwait, executive assistant to the hospital administrator.

The helipad is just a few yards south of the emergency building. Its walkway leads to the parking lot that serves both the clinic and emergency room.

Helicopter ambulances of an outside contractor supplement the ground ambulances of the hospital and are used to transport trauma patients to higher-level care.

Asphalting the Walkway: District 3 workers for County
Commissioner Stacy...

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Kari Cochran, PA-C, was the Physician Assistant
on Duty when the Emergency Room opened on September 2, 2025

Around-the-clock medical care has returned to Marietta, OK! 

At 7 a.m. September 2, 2025, a temporary Emergency Room opened on the campus of Mercy Health Love County Hospital at 300 Wanda St.

The 2,500-square-foot modular building occupies the east end of the clinic parking lot. The walk-in entrance is at the north end. The ER will be staffed 24 hours a day for walk-in and ambulance emergencies.

Physician assistants, nurses, laboratory technologists, respiratory therapists, and radiology technicians will be on duty daily.

This is as close to normal as medical services have been since a tornado on April 27, 2024, heavily damaged the hospital.

"With the opening of the temporary emergency room we have every service back that we had lost, including laboratory and radiology, so patients can be served in Marietta and not have to travel," said hospital administrator Scott Callender.

Chela Santibanez, RN, nurse manager in the ER, said at 4 p.m. that foot traffic on opening day had been steady. “It is not chaotic but patients have been coming in steadily all day. There have been no ambulance emergencies so far.”

For most of the staff, Tuesday was their first day back at work since the tornado.  “We are all excited and happy to be back serving the community,” Santibanez said.

Kari Cochran, longtime PA in the emergency department was the Physician...

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Around the clock medical care has returned to Marietta, OK! 

At 7 a.m. Tuesday, September 2, 2025, a temporary Emergency Room will open on the campus of Mercy Health Love County Hospital at 300 Wanda St.

The ER will be staffed 24 hours a day for walk-in emergencies or patients brought to the ER by ground or air ambulance.

Physician assistants, nurses, laboratory technologists, respiratory therapists, and radiology technicians will be on duty daily.

The building contains three treatment bays and a Trauma Room, as well as a laboratory.

A high-powered 128-slice CT machine is in a trailer designed for its use on the south end of the building.

This is as close to normal as medical services have been since a tornado on April 27, 2024, heavily damaged the hospital and surrounding medical buildings.

"With the opening of the temporary emergency room we have every service back that we had lost, including laboratory and radiology, so patients can be served in Marietta and not have to travel," said hospital administrator Scott Callender.

A doctor's clinic and the therapy building for physical and speech therapy have been open since last summer.

What is still missing is inpatient care. That awaits the repair or replacement of the hospital building itself.

The federal emergency management authorities are expected to give the go-ahead on hospital construction soon.

FEMA will pay the largest part of the cost of construction, outside of insurance coverage for the...

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A Fresh Start: Lead volunteer Lula Finch had the help of students on
summer break Tuesday when the Hospital Food Pantry reopened at
1100 Memorial Drive. Adriana Galano, 20, and Cutter Crosthwait, 13,
have parents who are hospital employees.

The hospital food pantry is home!  A Marietta location owned by the hospital opened at 1100 Memorial Drive on July 22. The building, a former car dealership, is roomy enough for clients to drive through and stay in their cars while pantry volunteers put food packages in the trunk.

Cars enter from Memorial Drive and exit the building onto Wanda St. “I am very pleased with how the process went today,” said Lula Finch, head volunteer, who has been with the food pantry from the beginning in 2001. The pantry’s former permanent building on the hospital’s east side was destroyed in last year’s tornado.

The pantry is licensed by the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. It receives truckloads of fresh, packaged, canned, and frozen foods several days per month. The mission of the pantry is to assist the hungry and food insecure of Love County. 

Clients register with the pantry on their first visit. About 400 families, mostly elderly or having young children, are served each month.

Pantry volunteers besides Finch are Jim Ahern, Anthony Brown, Jed Brown, Jim and Joanne Coble, Debra Gaines, Rosann Kelly, Naomi Lornes, Diana Morrison, Cathy Redding and Jessica Smith.