Wednesday, March 26, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
After two young girls tried unsuccessfully to save their dying father by giving him CPR, neighbors felt the children needed emotional support from trained counselors.
A neighbor called 911 and asked for a Trauma Intervention Program volunteer to come to the house.
She was turned away Monday by emergency dispatchers.
That's because the family's mobile home in a park at 5150 E. Craig Road is in unincorporated Clark County. And Clark County doesn't fund the 3-year-old Las Vegas program.
"I don't know why the county won't fund us," said Marian Thomas, TIP's Las Vegas-area crisis team manager.
Melody O'Neill, the next-door neighbor, said she was dumbfounded when emergency operators told her TIP volunteers would not be coming.
"A paramedic told one of the girls her father was dead," O'Neill said. "She ran screaming and crying out of the house saying, 'No, my daddy's not dead, my daddy's not dead.'"
Brandy, 11, and Bobby, 12, were home with their father, Danny Brooker, 37, when he fell ill. Brooker took Rolaids and Pepto Bismol instead of calling a doctor.
"When he stopped breathing, the girls performed CPR and called 911," O'Neill said. "When I came inside, Danny was already dead."
The coroner, who said Brooker died from coronary artery thrombosis, picked up the body about 40 minutes later. Brooker's wife, who had been at a dentist appointment, came home and learned that her husband had died. The police wouldn't let her in the house until the coroner arrived.
"No one was helping the family while all this was going on," O'Neill said. "We're talking about kids who were involved in a traumatic situation."
The girls feel guilty because their father died, O'Neill said, and no one was there to counsel them.
"They were the little heroes in this," she said.
Thomas said it would be cost about $40,000 a year for the county to participate, noting that with each agency that jumps in, the cost decreases. Henderson also funds the TIP program.
TIP received a letter in 1995 from former County Manager Pat Shalmy saying the county was not interested in funding the program.
County Commissioner Lance Malone is familiar with TIP, which began in San Diego County in 1985 and is now in 35 cities. As a Metro officer, he said he knows the TIP program works. He is bringing the issue before the commission next month to discuss how much it would cost and how to get it started.
"We see death all the time," Malone said. "It's better coming from someone who has a better understanding of how to tell them."
One thing TIP volunteers do is shield those grieving from well-meaning neighbors who walk up to them and say, "It's going to be OK," or "Don't cry," Thomas said.
"It's not going to be OK," she said. "They need to cry. We don't want anyone telling them that. Nobody knows how the little girls feel."
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