Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic

 
Dr. Jones Retires: Terry Jones, M.D. and his wife Lorraine are joined at 
a clinic retirement party by Clinic Director Misti Kirk (r) and hospital
director Scott Callender.

Always known as a sports fan, Dr. Terry Jones couldn't resist showing up at his retirement party with co-workers on December 23, wearing an Ohio State logo shirt. His wife, Lorraine, was dressed to match.

The Buckeyes are contending for a national championship in football in the next few days.

"I have to support them because I worked so hard there getting my medical degree," Jones said with a smile. That was in 1983. He interned in Austin, Texas, and completed residency in Wichita, KS.

Chickasaw Nation Health Clinics were brand new at the time, and Jones started his medical career in the Chickasaw clinics in Ada and Tishomingo.

Later career stops took him to private practice and emergency medicine. 

He joined Mercy Health Love County Clinic in 2014 as a Board-certified family physician. Misti Kirk, clinic director, estimated Dr. Jones served 1,000 patients. Over the past six months, they have transferred to other physicians and nurse practitioners in the clinic. 

Jones has always had high praise for the clinic staff and other coworkers and he thanked them again for their skill and help. Many had served alongside him his entire tenure.

Asked to think back over special interests in medicine, Jones named hypertension, or high blood pressure. Untreated it is a leading cause of heart...

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NEW PA IN EMERGENCY ROOM BRINGS A PASSION FOR MEDICINE AND HORSES

DeDeAnders, DMS, PA-C

DeDe Anders was 17 years old in 1991 and wondering what to do with her life when she first set foot in Oklahoma.

Or, rather boot. The native of Wyoming arrived here as a solider at Ft. Sill in Lawton. Based on aptitude test scores, the U.S. Army made her a medic. She worked three years in a troop medical clinic, and grew to like the field. 

When her time in the Army was up, Anders' direction in life was set - pursue medical studies and zero in on a specialty.

She never forgot Oklahoma – especially the warm weather and the strong tradition in horses and rodeos.  She has been a barrel racer from youth.

In 2025, Anders and medicine, and horses, and Oklahoma would meet again. She joined Mercy Health Love County Emergency Room as a Physician Assistant on September 1, the day the new emergency room opened.  She moved from Wyoming with two barrel-racing horses.

"My world is small," she said, “medicine and horses."

Her medical education from 1994 to the present has been phenomenal.

It topped out in 2023 with a doctorate of medical science (DMS), the highest academic degree a physician assistant can obtain. Her specialty within the degree was emergency medicine. The granting institution was Lincoln Memorial University.

Already, her expertise is being recognized. The national board for PA’s has engaged Anders to write questions for the PA-C, the profession’s national exam....

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HIGHLY-EXPERIENCED NURSE PRACTITIONER JOINS EMERGENCY ROOM

Sandy Harman, DNP, Nurse Practitioner

Sandy Harman, nurse practitioner, has joined Mercy Health Love County in the Emergency Room. She provides critical care, diagnosing and treating patients who have acute illnesses or injuries.

The friendly and kind clinician has settled in since opening day of the ER on September 2. “I really like this community,” Harman said of Marietta. “People are hard-working and nice, and in the emergency room, all have been respectful toward the staff.”

“The teamwork here is phenomenal,” she added. “The staff is well-trained, competent, friendly, and takes care of patients well.” She also noted the “very knowledgeable” paramedics at the nearby ambulance station who come into the ER to assist her.

 “Phenomenal” is an apt description of Harman’s career and education. As she explains, “I have 33 years in nursing, with 25 of them as a nurse-practitioner, and 16 years of education in the medical field.”

Starting as a senior in high school in Carrollton, Missouri in 1986, Harman gained licensure successively as a certified nurse’s aide (CNA), emergency medical technician (EMT) and licensed vocational nurse (LVN).

“Our family physician was one of the first nurse practitioners in Missouri. I was influenced by the way she provided care to pursue that profession myself,” said Harman, who proceeded to work her way through college.

After earning an associate’s degree, she qualified...

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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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