A special honor Monday for Nebraska's first responders who helped in a potentially deadly situation in a neighboring state. Troopers relayed a life saving drug across the state to a child in need.
On the evening of May 29 the Nebraska State Patrol Omaha office got a call from the Nebraska Medical Center that they needed a drug quickly transported from Omaha to a Denver area Children's Hospital.
Impavido treats Brain Eating Amoeba and is contracted when the parasite is in fresh water when people are typically swimming, and the water enters the nose. It is rare but has a 97% risk of death.
Because of bad weather and no planes leaving Omaha for Denver, troopers had to relay the drug by vehicle from Omaha to North platte where it was flown to Colorado.
Governor Pete Ricketts awarded each trooper involved in the relay with a letter of congratulations.
"It was actually flawless, Lt. Sutter did a lot of work in a short amount of time. We had zero issues with the relay once he got it set up," said Trooper Tom Hicken, who was the first to transport the drug. "That's part of our job everyday, this one just happened to be unique and possibly save a child's life."
Officials say the child was transported to Denver from Wyoming, and may have been in hot springs when they feared the child contracted the bacteria. But the diagnosis was not Brain Eating Amoeba. The drug was administered because they needed to treat it quickly if it were the very deadly parasite.
