Las Vegas provides rooms for NO rescuers: "I wake up in night sweats"

[Bluebear]

Paramedic Ronald Mason talks Thursday about his experiences in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.


Shortly after New Orleans police officer Lawrence Celestine put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, paramedic Ronald Mason saw what a bullet to the brain can do.

He was called to the scene, but as so often happened during his rescue efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there was nothing he could do. "I wake up in night sweats still seeing him," the 57-year-old Mason said as he sat inside the Boulder Station casino Thursday. "It was hard to believe an officer would do that."

The suicides of Celestine and fellow officer Paul Accardo, coupled with dozens of officers turning in their badges as the situation in New Orleans became more desperate, convinced New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin that rest and recuperation, or R&R, was necessary if emergency personnel were to be effective over the long haul.

On Tuesday, 43 paramedics and firefighters, along with many of their family members, arrived in Las Vegas for five days. Other rescue workers have been sent to Atlanta. Over the next month, other New Orleans police officers, firefighters and paramedics will be sent to the two cities on R&R.

The R&R program, started about one week after rescue workers began their emergency efforts in ever-worsening conditions of despair, death and flooding, has drawn a largely sympathetic response. In Las Vegas, rooms have been provided free by Station Casinos, the Hard Rock, Boyd Gaming, the Palms and Fitzgeralds.....

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Sep-09-Fri-2005/news/27178249.html

EMS Jeanne Dunn talks Thursday in Las Vegas about her experiences in New Orleans during the hurricane.