November 10, 2004

Car lurches into medical office

       A Greenwood medical office is back in business after a car drove into its lobby and destroyed a wall Monday.  Four people at Center Grove Family Medicine, 362 Meridian Parke Drive, were taken to area hospitals after a car driven by Carolyn Stahm, 70, smashed through the wall of the building, which is an office for five family practitioners.  According to the Greenwood Police Department accident report, Stahm said she pulled her car into a handicapped space and applied the brakes, but her car leaped forward and into the waiting room of the office.  The crash destroyed the front outside wall, said Capt. Dave Payne, Greenwood Police Department spokesman.  Stahm was taken to Community Hospital South for examination.  Karen Law, 49, and Ross Bromstrup, 20, were sitting under a window in the lobby when the wall caved in. They were taken to Methodist Hospital with leg and back injuries. A man complained of chest pains after the incident, and a toddler was cut by flying glass.  All the injuries were minor, Payne said.

         The doctors began seeing patients again at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, calls to the office were forwarded to a medical billing service, and patients were told to call back to the clinic after noon.  Staff members were allowed back in at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and reorganized the office before they began taking phone calls and seeing patients, said Annette Fulton, spokeswoman for St. Francis Hospital, which manages the office.  Monday night, workers installed a temporary wall, Fulton said. The wall, made of insulated caulk and plastic sheeting, kept the building warm and secured it overnight.  The carpet was also cleaned, but the fire marshal inspected the building and was not satisfied that all the glass had been removed, so the staff put down plastic mats, Fulton said.  She said it would take two to three days to get the wall repaired.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

   
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