Nome Search and Rescue crews said 67 year-old Dexter Irrigoo was hospitalized after being found alive on Monday afternoon June 2, following more than a 24-hour search. Nome Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD) coordinated the search and rescue. NVFD Chief Jim West, Jr. said Irrigoo was alive but in critical condition when he was found.
“He was loaded up and brought to the ER, the condition of him was critical. But he was alive,” West said.
Irrigoo was a dementia patient from Gambell, according to city officials, and was staying at the Norton Sound Health Corporation patient hostel with an escort. He wandered away from the facility Sunday morning. It was still unclear how he went missing.
Norton Sound Health Corporation (NSHC) Public Relations Manager Reba Lean said in a statement that the patient hostel “operates as a hotel, and guests are free to come and go as they please.” She added that escorts are often close friends or family members from the patients’ home community who travel along to help.
Patient hostel security camera footage provided information for the direction of the initial search. Search and rescue followed Irrigoo’s path heading west into town Sunday morning. This information focused search efforts from Sunday through Monday morning along Nome’s main streets towards Front Street and the sea wall.
Lean appreciated the community collaboration to locate Irrigoo.
“We were so grateful for the quick response of volunteers and community partners in the search,” stated Lean. “Our administration approved support for the search effort, and that included allowing our employees to join the search during work hours.”
West said SAR learned from the situation and is looking into implementing Amber and Silver alert systems for missing persons, which would send an alert to Nome cell phones.
“We’d get the message out, saying, ‘Hey, we have a missing person,’ or ‘We have a missing kid,’” West explained. “People start looking on their own, basically, while we're mustering up and getting ready to go,” he explained.
West said it was through collaboration that this search was ultimately successful.
“When something happens, we usually come together and we go out and determine what the issue is and respond and get things done in a timely manner,” West said.
West credited the City of Nome and its Public Works department, Norton Sound Health Corporation, Alaska State Troopers and the many community volunteers who contributed to the search and rescue efforts.
