The tornado that has leveled a small Missouri town blasted x-ray records from the local hospital as far as 70 miles away, according to a hospital network spokesperson.
St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, MO, was hit hard by the twister, said Lisa Cox, spokesperson for Joplin's sister hospital, St. John's in Springfield. Springfield has been getting calls from residents within a 70-mile radius about x-rays from Joplin discovered on the ground.
"We've been telling people to keep whatever documents they find, and when things have stabilized we'll initiate an effort to collect them," Cox told AuntMinnie.com.
As of Monday evening, the Springfield facility had accepted more than 60 patients from Joplin, some of whom were injured from the storm and some of whom were moved so that their care could be continued, Cox said.
As to whether medical radioactive waste had been spread in the area, it remains unclear, according to Cox.
"We haven't heard anything about that at this point," she said.
Representatives at St. John's in Joplin could not be reached.
