Long-Term Carlsbad Physician Retires

By Misty Cryer

After serving the community of Carlsbad for more than two decades as a physician in her family medicine practice and as the medical director of several local entities, Dr. Kim Lark plans to enjoy her well-deserved retirement.

Aside from her medical practice, she is also known for serving the community and nation with search and rescue. A retirement celebration will be held at the office, 2402 W. Pierce St., on December 9 for her patients.

Originally from a suburb of Cleveland, OH, Lark said she attended medical school in Miami, FL, and worked there for a year after completing her residency. “I came to Carlsbad in 1998,” she said, adding, “Carlsbad has been very good to me.”

Lark said she has also served as Medical Director for Lakeview Hospice, CARC, Inc., Golden Services Home Health and Hospice, and Landsun Homes, for both the nursing home and hospice and home health. “Throughout my whole career, I made house calls,” she said.

When asked what the community is going to do without her, Lark said, “That is a problem since we have very few physicians in Carlsbad, New Mexico.”

Lark’s dogs are a memorable part of her practice. “My dogs come to the office with me every day,” she said, adding, “I think for a lot of the patients, especially the CARC clients, it makes it a much better visit for them.”

Working with rescue dogs began when Lark was in Miami. “I was part of a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team there,” she said. “I went to the ‘96 Atlanta Summer Games, I went to a few hurricanes, and then a building explosion in Puerto Rico with my dog.”

When moving to Carlsbad, Lark said she was disappointed she wouldn’t be able to do FEMA work, but shortly thereafter, a disaster struck the United States, and she learned that New Mexico had a FEMA team.

“I joined that FEMA team in ’99, and I was deployed to 9/11 with my dog; I went to the Pentagon,” she said. She said she also went to New Orleans after Katrina and Texas after Rita.

Since then, Lark said New Mexico lost their FEMA team. “I have still been very active with the Carlsbad Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department, Artesia Police Department, and Hobbs Police Department,” she said.

“My cadaver dog is a lot busier than my live-find dog,” said Lark. She said Storm, a border collie, is the cadaver dog trained to find human remains. Her live-find dog is a Dutch Shepherd named Felony. “She was my certified FEMA dog,” she said.

For retirement plans, Lark said, “I want to travel. I want to see friends I haven’t seen since college. I’m looking forward to it.”

In December, she said, “I’m going to visit some friends in Port Aransas. They invited me and one of my dogs down. We’ll go down and walk on the beach and just relax for a week.”

There are also plans to attend dog training seminars. “I only got to one seminar last year, and I only skied for one week last year, and that’s nowhere near enough,” said Lark. “I love to snow ski,” she said.

“I have a trip to Utah planned and a trip to Whistler, Canada, planned,” said Lark. Explaining that Whistler is outside of Vancouver and looks like the Alps, she said, “It is absolutely spectacular out there.”

Retirement celebrations so far included one at Lakeview Hospice and one at the CARC Farm. With her staff, she said, “We’re going to have like an open house on December 9 and have a little retirement celebration here for the patients.”

For patients who need records, Lark said they should probably request them by the end of December. She said she will not be working at all in December, but staff will be there until the end of the month.

About the community of Carlsbad, Lark said, “They have been fantastic, they really have.” She said, “Some patients have become friends. The people of Carlsbad are down-to-earth and genuine. I really have enjoyed practicing here and being part of Carlsbad.”

The only thing Lark said she didn’t like is that the State of New Mexico charges doctors gross receipts sales tax. “That would be why they don’t have enough doctors here, and it’s really not fair to the patients to not have any physicians,” she said, adding, “We are in a crisis right now.”

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Dr. Lark and her dogs have brought smiles to patients and clients, as well as provided search-and-rescue services to the community and the nation.