Nurse Helps Reunite Lost Boy, Mother

Information supplied by a nurse at Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach has led to the reunion of a lost mentally disabled teen-ager and his mother.

Jose Garcia, 14, had been found three months ago wandering among the morning traffic at Cerritos Avenue and Los Alamitos Boulevard in Los Alamitos. Unable to speak, Garcia was clutching a piece of paper with his name scrawled on it.

Frustrated in their attempts to find his parents, police notified an Orange County newspaper that last week published the boy’s picture. Julie Meyer, a nurse at Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach, saw it and recognized Garcia as a former patient who had been treated for epilepsy at the hospital.

Using medical records, the hospital was able to assist the police in locating the boy’s mother, Marta Pena of Long Beach, with whom he had an emotional reunion this week.

“We were happy to be able to be of service,” said hospital spokesman Ron Yukelson. “It makes us feel good.”