The dawn of a new year is always reason for celebration, but for us at St. Tammany Health System, that’s particularly true with the arrival of 2024. 

That’s because it will mark the 70th year since the citizens of the Northshore came together and willed St. Tammany Parish Hospital into being on Dec. 1, 1954. 

Of course, an anniversary like that can’t go unrecognized. In fact, we have already started celebrating with the introduction of our weekly, 70-part series on the hospital’s history. (You can read more about that at StTammany.health.) 

But easily our favorite anniversary story so far comes courtesy of Cathy Arnold Kemp. She has the distinction of being the first baby born at the hospital upon its 1954 opening, and she recently paid us a visit to share her story. 

Fun fact: Kemp’s parents, Ottis Arnold, 91, and Catherine Arnold, 89, still live in the same Tangipahoa Parish house they lived in back then – and they are still loyal patients of St. Tammany Health System. 

We love them and their story so much, we can’t think of a better way of kicking off our anniversary year than by sharing it with you. Read about it at StTammany.health, or listen to Mrs. Kemp tell it in her own words below. 

We hope you are as delighted by her as we are, and we hope you enjoy the rest of the stories included in this month’s newsletter.  

Thanks for reading, thanks for trusting St. Tammany Health System with your family’s care – and have a wonderful, fulfilling 2024. 

 Mary Bahn’s cell phone rang. “I’m out walking the dog right now,” she told the person on the other line. 

For her, even that was a personal victory. 

Just five months earlier, the simple act of breathing was difficult for the 81-year-old congestive heart failure patient following an episode that landed her on life support at St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital. 

Her condition at that point was so dire doctors weren’t sure she’d make it. 

But Mary Bahn is made of tougher stuff than that. Not only did she make it, but she has become the poster child for a pilot program launched this past spring by the health system’s Home Health Services team to help congestive heart failure patients more effectively manage their condition.

New Year’s hours 

With a new year upon us, St. Tammany Health System has announced changes in operating hours for its primary care and specialty clinics on both New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31, 2023) and New Year’s Day (Jan. 1, 2024). 

A life of service 

The Paul D. Cordes Outpatient Pavilion on Bootlegger Road has long been a fixture of the community, but just who was Paul D. Cordes? We have the answer in this installment in 70 for 70, our ongoing weekly history series.  

Fa-la-la-la-la 

In what has become a treasured holiday tradition, STHS colleagues recently loaded up hundreds of wrapped Christmas presents destined to warm the holidays of local families in need. Click the link below for one last burst of joy from Christmas 2023.

Class schedule released 

As part of its mission to treat the whole patient, St. Tammany Cancer Center – A Campus of Ochsner Medical Center, hosts free monthly classes on a variety of topics for diagnosed cancer patients. Click the link for what’s on tap in January.