MedicAlert Foundation to Honor LA County Sheriff’s Detective with Extraordinary Meritorious Service (EMS) Award
Managing Editor's Note: We recently welcomed Medic Alert to AofA as an advertiser. They are running an April promotion for autism wandering safety.
Who: The MedicAlert Foundation, a leader in emergency medical information services, will recognize a Detective of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Norwalk Station for coming to the aid of a MedicAlert Foundation member. MedicAlert Foundation Board Member, Tom Levin, will present an Extraordinary Meritorious Service Award to Detective Mark Christiansen.
When: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.
Where: Norwalk Sheriff’s Station 12335 Civic Center Drive · Norwalk, CA 90650
Why: The award recipient was responsible for caring for an adult MedicAlert member with autism who had wandered from their home. Detective Christiansen’s recognition and response to the member’s MedicAlert ID enabled him to instantly access the member’s medical history and to identify the patient’s needs. MedicAlert’s emergency response team worked with Detective Christiansen to ensure that the member was safely returned home.
The MedicAlert Foundation Extraordinary Meritorious Service Award honors first responders who have recognized the MedicAlert medical ID and contacted MedicAlert’s 24/7 Live Emergency Response Service Center to access vital medical and identification information to provide the best care and services for members of MedicAlert Foundation.
Detective Christiansen has described his actions after receiving a call about a man wandering the campus of Norwalk High School. “School security advised me that the individual was cooperative, however unable to speak. I initially tried to get him to write down his name or any information regarding who he was. He was unable to perform this task either,” explains Detective Christiansen. “While attempting to communicate with the individual, I noticed his MedicAlert Bracelet. I called the number and provided the information to the operator. The operator provided me with an address for a nursing facility. The nursing staff stated he had never walked away from the facility before and were pleased we found him unharmed.”
About Award Recipient
Detective Mark Christiansen has served as Deputy Sheriff for the past 15 years and is presently assigned to the Norwalk Station where he has been for the last 12 years. Detective Christiansen’s duties include the investigation of crimes ranging from theft, identify theft, burglary, robbery, assaults and attempted murder. He has been involved in the arrests of over 400 people in the Los Angeles County area for related crimes.
About MedicAlert Foundation
Established in 1956, the nonprofit MedicAlert Foundation pioneered the use of medical IDs and delivers the most dependable, the most responsive, the most intelligent and the most trusted Emergency Identification and Medical Information Network. MedicAlert provides the functionality of an e-health information exchange through an innovative combination of a unique patient identifier linked to a personal health record and a live 24/7 emergency response service. MedicAlert Foundation International medical IDs alert emergency personnel to a member’s primary health conditions, medications or implanted medical devices. In addition to its 24-hour emergency response service, MedicAlert Foundation International also provides family and caregiver notification so that members can be reunited with their loved ones. Visit www.medicalert.org for more information.
In the AoA sidebar today, there is an article about yet another child with autism (Ariyanna Pivachek ) in Tampa Bay wandering off and drowning.
The individual involved in this story above (Norwalk) was cooperative, he was not a child, the circumstances and surrounding were different, but as everyone knows, any of these situations where autism is a factor can go from 0-to-60 in a heartbeat. This program (MedicAlert) and the demeanor and actions of Detective Christiansen are to be commended, for preventing another potential tragedy from making the headlines.
Posted by: Shiny Happy Person | April 12, 2012 at 01:09 PM
It is nice that this should be recognised.
Posted by: John Stone | April 10, 2012 at 01:47 PM