Nevada Response Team helps boy after seizure

Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005 | 9:19 a.m.

Nevadans at home and in hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast states are doing their part to offer comfort and relief to thousands of Katrina survivors, and no better example of that was the help given to a boy suffering a seizure in Mississippi.

Members of the Nevada Response Team made up of police officers and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers based in Mississippi helped a woman and her 11-year-old son find a nearby hospital in Moss Point, Miss., on Friday.

Metro Police Sgt. Hal Hughes and Highway Patrol Trooper Keith Hoehne were on patrol in Moss Point when a vehicle with its emergency flashers on pulled up behind them.

The woman behind the wheel was hysterical. She lived in Gulfport, Miss., and lost everything, including her home.

Hughes discovered that the boy was not responding and had trouble breathing. Instead of waiting for an ambulance, Hughes and Hoehne placed the child in Hoehne's patrol car. Hughes got into the mother's car.

Parole and Probation Officer J.R. Haggerty and Trooper David Dudley also arrived in the area to help, along with Troopers Mike Grigg and Tom Urso.

The Southern Nevada officers were unfamiliar with the area, but Haggerty and Dudley directed them to the Singing River Hospital. Grigg and Urso assisted with traffic control at intersections to help Hoehne on his way to the hospital.

Parole and Probation Officer Ken Wheaton and Trooper Mike Primeaux found the hospital's emergency entrance, and the child received immediate medical treatment.

That was the latest in a long string of stories as law enforcement officers from Northern and Southern Nevada continue to help isolated hurricane survivors.

Officers found a mother and two children stranded, out of gas, without food or water. She received food and water and enough fuel to get to an American Red Cross shelter.

Officers also found a pregnant woman stranded in a car without gas, food or water and helped her to a safe place.

The Nevada Response Team discovered an area in northeastern Harrison County that had been isolated without food or water since the hurricane. They coordinated a Red Cross rescue team to the area.

One interesting find on Monday was a 9-foot-long alligator that had been run over by a truck, so it posed no threat, police said.

A Jackson County deputy who lost his home and all of his belongings in the hurricane had been working up to 14-hour shifts and then went home to help his son scoop mud and debris out of the shell that had been his house. He slept for an hour or two.

The Nevada team contributed money to the deputy for a refrigerator and other basic necessities. They also donated a tent and two fans for the deputy and his family, police said.

The team is expected to leave for Nevada on Saturday and should return to Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Las Vegas residents can track the progress of about 100 law enforcement officers on the team from Nevada in the hurricane-stricken area.

To track their progress as they aid hurricane victims, log on to the main Web site, www.LVMPD.com. The Katrina link is in the upper right corner of the home page.

Back home in Las Vegas on Tuesday the Red Cross had served more than 1,200 hurricane victims since Katrina struck on Sept. 1.

The Red Cross has provided direct financial assistance of more than $400,000, offering immediate assistance and cutting checks based on family size. Amounts have ranged from $360 for an individual to $1,565 for a family of five or more.

Catholic Charities, at the Fertitta Community Assistance Center where all hurricane victims check in, has served more than 500 meals each day, as well as clothing, toiletry kits, wheelchairs, toys and Teddy bears for children.

The center also offers blankets, volunteer assistance to survivors and employment services.

By Tuesday afternoon 72 households totaling 180 people had signed in at the center. Officials estimate more than 1,550 hurricane survivors have registered at the center, including families ranging in size from one to 16 members.