Lights of Love event lifts spirits at Las Vegas children’s hospital

Las Vegas Review-Journal

5 years ago

A group of community members and first responders shine lights into the third floor of UMC Chil ... — A group of community members and first responders shine lights into the third floor of UMC Children’s Hospital, where sick kids are spending the holidays, on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_

Kids who are staying at UMC Children’s Hospital shine lights to a group of community members and first responders, who are shining lights back at them, on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_

MedicWest operations manager Nick Jurman shines three flashlights up to the third floor of UMC Children’s Hospital, where sick kids are spending the holidays, on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, at UMC Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_

MedicWest paramedic Heather Raasveld, who organized the event, leads the crowd in moving their flashlights in unison on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, at UMC Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas. The group was shining their lights up at the sick children who will be spending the holidays in the hospital. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_

MedicWest EMT Victor Hurtado shines a flashlight up to kids who will be spending the holidays in the hospital on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, at UMC Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_

People gather Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, outside of the Children’s Hospital at University Medical Center in Las Vegas for a Lights of Love event to show support for young patients and their families. (Mary Hynes/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

A crowd waits in the parking lot to shine flashlights at children who are stuck in the hospital as the holidays approach at UMC Children’s Hospital of Nevada at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. The event, called Lights of Love, was coordinated with private ambulance services and the hospital. (Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @rookie__rae

Alicia Langoria-Buffington, 5, in front of her dad David Langoria-Buffington, shines a flashlight back at a crowd of people in the parking lot flashing lights at children who are stuck in the hospital as the holidays approach at UMC Children’s Hospital of Nevada at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. The event, called Lights of Love, was coordinated with private ambulance services and the hospital. (Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @rookie__rae

Zion Green, 12, shines a flashlight back at a crowd of people in the parking lot flashing lights at children who are stuck in the hospital as the holidays approach at UMC Children’s Hospital of Nevada at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. The event, called Lights of Love, was coordinated with private ambulance services and the hospital. (Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @rookie__rae

Alicia Langoria-Buffington, 5, shines a flashlight back at a crowd of people in the parking lot flashing lights at children who are stuck in the hospital as the holidays approach at UMC Children’s Hospital of Nevada at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. The event, called Lights of Love, was coordinated with private ambulance services and the hospital. (Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @rookie__rae

A girl sitting on a tall stool waved a miniature green flashlight from behind a hospital third-floor window Monday evening.

“I get to turn it on and off, on and off,” said 5-year-old Alicia Longoria-Buffington, a patient at the Children’s Hospital at University Medical Center.

And for several minutes, a crowd of about 75 first responders and residents shined their own flashlights and vehicle lights right back at her.

Their message to Alicia and the other young patients and their families: You are not alone this holiday season.

Monday’s Lights of Love event was the first in a series this month at children’s hospitals in the Las Vegas Valley. American Medical Response and MedicWest Ambulance, the largest providers of private ambulance services in Southern Nevada, teamed up with the hospitals for the events.

Alicia and two other hospital patients gathered at 6 p.m. in an east-facing room to watch the spectacle below.

“The ambulances are so cool because they’re turning blue and red,” Alicia said. “It’s so pretty to see all the lights out there.”

Alicia’s father, David Longoria-Buffington, said his daughter had been hospitalized with signs of appendicitis that turned out to be kidney issues.

Zion Green, 12, who’d been in the hospital for four days with severe pain from sickle cell anemia, said the event served “to remind us we can still do things, even if we’re sick.”

Diego Ugalde, 16, hospitalized with dog bites to his hands and arms, originally didn’t plan to come to the event but said he was glad he did.

“It was really fun and cool,” he said.

In the crowd below, Emeral Garcia said she was inspired to come to the event to honor her sister who died in August at age 37.

“She wasn’t a kid …” Garcia began to say, when her mother, Trina Guzman, interjected: “She was my kid.”

Heather Raasveld, an advanced emergency medical technician with MedicWest, proposed the idea for Lights of Love to her employer after seeing a video of a similar event at a children’s hospital in Michigan.

“If we can lift their spirits for even one evening, take their mind off of things, that’s perfection for us,” she said.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.