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HEALTH

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Two weeks after tornado, Suffolk medical offices reopen

05:36 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 14, 2008

SUFFOLK -- Just two week after the Suffolk tornado damaged a medical office building, it reopened.

The image of a truck smashed into the doctor’s office by the storm is still in many people’s minds, and predictions put the office’s reopening three to six months away.

However, they were happily wrong and started seeing patients again Monday.

Neurologist Dr. Rajiv Nanavaty remembered diagnosing a patient two weeks ago, then looking out the third floor window to see darkness and a funnel.

“Then we saw the debris flying and we realized it was a real tornado,” he said. “It was heading straight to us.”

Jim Pearce had just come out of knee replacement surgery across the way at Sentara Obici Hospital.

“You look at what went on around the building and in the neighborhood and you think, no more damage was done to Obici than it was,” he said. “We were very lucky.”

Video: Medical offices reopen two weeks after tornado
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Two weeks later, his surgeon is back to seeing patients in the office, and the truck once slung into a first floor orthopedic office is gone.

Nansemond River Medical Center has a new roof and new ceiling tiles. It was dried out and dusted out. Construction work continues on the back of the building.

“Still a lot of work to be done,” said Shari Underwood of the Nansemond River Medical Center. “Think the main thing for employees was to get back home ‘cause this, of course, is like a home to us.”

Virginia Oncology has yet to reopen its office in the building. They had to order new cancer treatment equipment, and will start seeing cancer patients there next Monday.

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