Mom dies after 911 operator ignores boy's call
 

thats....kinda effed up.

Make them pitch in for the funeral and make them attend.

It doesn't take a crystal ball to see an unemployment line in someone's future. At least, it better not!

I can't believe she is still on the job. She should at least be suspended while the investigation is in progress.

OMG that poor little boy. :(

Local news played the 911 call between the little boy and the 911 dispatcher. She sounded snarky in the conversation. She kept asking him to go get a grownup to come to the phone. Yeah the only grownup in the house is passed out. The kicker is the little boy called back a second time and "somehow" ended up with this woman a second time on the phone.

Oh, my goodness... :( You just don't think of stuff like this ever happening.

:mad: :( That poor little boy did the right thing and was not helped.

Fire her!!!:mad: :mad:

My crystal ball shows the dispatecher being fired and a lawsuit in the works!

Poor little boy!!!:(

The local papers are reporting that she will not be fired but has been disciplined (I believe it's a brief suspension), that she's a veteran dispatcher who has a very good record and that over 1/3 of the calls they get daily are prank calls. NOT that I'm justifying, just saying what the papers are reporting.

Me too...that is horrible.

That is so horribly sad. :(

She should be fired.

I agree that accidents and misjudgements happen but she is in a position of serious responsibility.

Remember, death is the one mistake that can't be apologized for or made right.

If the crcumstances hadn't ended with a death I would agree with a simple reprimand.

This reminds me of an incident a couple of years ago outside of Baltimore where someone called 911 to say that a woman was being kidnapped and the operator treated it as a prank call. The woman's body was found in the woods the next day. Apparently, her kidnappers drove her around for hours and made her use her ATM card and then shot her in the head and dumped her body.

This is fresh in my mind because I just read in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago that a suit her family filed against the county was dismissed because the judge ruled that the county doesn't have a duty to protect its citizens (or something like that. I'm still working on my first coffee)

Anyhoo, it's just tragic :(

I'm glad I'm not in this woman's position for a couple of reasons.

First, is the obvious.

Second, being a 911 operator must be a very tough job. I can remember when I was in elementary school, they kept pounding into our heads how expensive and how dangerous false alarms were (are).

With the very high number of crank calls mentioned in the article, I can understand how this kind of thing could happen.

Terribly tragic for all involved.

I was under the (obviously wrong, according to this) impression that some sort of "help" - Police, Fire, Medic - HAD to be sent to every call. Although, that may have been an older rule.

Yeah, I guess the operators are given some descretion.

It must be terribly expensive for a big city to deal with this number of false and/or malicious reports -- although, on the face of it, I don't see how a city could ignore any call for help.

Catch 22.

I've heard a number of cases -- including at least one here in the Denver area -- of 911 operator "foulups," although not all resulted in fatalities.

This particular one screams for media attention considering the mother/five year old child relationship.

I think I read that a suit has been filed.

I thought so also.

A few years ago we had a problem with people calling 911 and getting busy signals which, sadly, resulted in the death of a young woman on Long Island. Meanwhile, people were clogging 911 with calls that their cable was out. In NYC we have 311 which is a non-emergency information line to help alleviate the congestion.

The few times I called 911, I had fast responses. Fortunately, I never encountered this inept 911 operator. I agree with James' post especially that she should be fired.

So now, Fieger's (any native Detroiter's here?--you should know what I'm thinking) on the case--he's filing a wrongful death suit on behalf of the deceased's family:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2006604100335

I'm interested in seeing how this all turns out.

enigma_AKA

We have this in Charlotte now as well. I called 911 once on my way home from work to report that traffic lights were out at a major intersection but no one ever picked up. :(

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :mad:

It's official - a lawsuit has been filed. I'll post the link when I have a little more time.

Here's the link.

I called Aurora 911 a few months ago when a neighbor thought he was having a heart attack.

The call was very professionally handled.

The first responders (a Paramedic Engine Company) missed seeing us on the first pass, so I called again and they stayed on the line with me and talked them in to our location.

For the most part, 911 is a great system -- especially enhanced 911 where they can trace your call and location in case you can't talk or something -- or use it to alert residents in case of an evacuation, etc.

One funny story. A few years ago, we bought a new "wireless" phone system for our house and I got a call from local 911 in the middle of the night asking if everything was OK, because they had received a call from our phone number, with onbody on the line. The operator told me that wireless phones of that model and era would sometimes began dialing ramdom numbers when the battery got too low.

I wondered if it had called Australia...

There was an article recently about this in Boston, and the number of 911 calls that come through that are not emergencies. Apparently, there are people who call because they can't get Red Sox tickets, or because they are frustrated by traffic.

Do you live in Aurora, DA?

Native Detroiter here. And yeah, I laughed when I heard it was Fieger. He'll grab any high profile case he can.. and this is exactly his cup of tea. They're asking for over a million dollars for wrongful death and mental distress of the boy.

I really can see both sides. If 1/3 of their calls are pranks and they sent resources to every one of those calls, it's likely others would die because the resources they needed were sent on a prank call. Perhaps prosecuting the prank calls and making the consequences well known would be a good idea? In the meantime, Detroit is so bankrupt that they've cut fire and police services...

Sidenote---Fieger's a$$ was quick to get on the Today Show, hunh? Always up to something...mostly getting paid....(not that he doesn't do good things-but let's face facts....) :rolleyes:

Chief Cummings and the DPD has made a point, according to my parents, to reassure residents that the City still takes things seriously--especially in emergencies. But my mother said that, as you brought up, it is hard to believe that they can adequately assess and address the situation because they are so damn broke.

They can't *realistically* afford to do better with punishing prank callers or weeding out the real from the fake BUT you're right--SOMETHING has to be done. We'll just have to wait until after Fieger has made his grandstand.

enigma_AKA

The case will be thrown out unless Michigan has some sort of statute that says the city is liable here. Unless this attorney is unfamiliar with some very basic concepts covered in his law school's Torts I class, he's just doing this for the free publicity. It's sometimes tough to understand why anyone would take a lawyer like that seriously, but they do.

Generally speaking though, municipalities and their employees have absolute immunity in such cases.

Ktsnake,

This is exactly why Native Detroiters aren't neccessarily surprised at this filing. This case probably has little legal merit (though I admit that I don't know a lot about law---it does seem that the employees would have some type of protection, esp. emergency operatives) but this is, most likely, just for the profile and a ridiculous settlement that Detroit can't possibly afford. You have to know Fieger (re: Dr. Kevorkian and some other high profile cases) and his relationship with the metro Detroit community to fully grasp just how deep this can go...:rolleyes:

enigma_AKA

---begin rant

I called 911 in Orlando and got a busy signal. When I called back, someone picked up after a few rings.

I called 911 here and an automated machine picked up that said, "An emergency operator will be with you shortly." Shortly my ass. It took almost 5 minutes.

I've had a nightmare before where I'm being chased by a bad guy and I try dialing 911 but I get a busy signal. It's scary to know the nightmare is real!

Thank goodness the times I've called 911 have been for minor car accidents. What if I was bleeding out my eyes after being hit by a semi and someone who was trying to call for an ambulence got put on hold? Those few minutes they're on hold could mean life or death.

-----end rant

Anyway, I feel bad for the kid. The lawsuit will probably get thrown out but I do hope the 911 operator gets fired in the end.

My mother worked as a 911 operator in NYC for 20 years. That job is very stressful. We haven't discussed this case yet, but I'm sure she has a whole lot to say about it and the operator in question.
I'm so glad that the city implemented 311.

:( for the little boy and his family.

What happens if the 911 dispatcher sent out a police car to what turned out to be a prank and someone else who needed the help couldn't get it because the cops took to long to arrive?

-Rudey

Pranks are a problem. People calling 911 with non-emergency situations are a problem. Thinking a child is pulling a prank after he calls TWICE is a BIG problem.

Whether or not the city can be held legally responsible, something needs to be done. That woman should be out of a job and should be made to publically apologize to that child and the family. I don't know how she can sleep at night, the "what if's" should be keeping her awake.

Seriously. If a little kid calls and sounds as frustrated as he did, wouldn't a bell go off in your head??? I know that they get alot of prank calls, but when he called BACK?! I seriously hope they fire her!

We've had both good and bad experiences with 911. When my daddy had an abdomenal anuerysm (we didn't know at the time), he just stood up and said, "I'm having the worst pain of my life!" then collapsed. My mother started called 911, and the operator was slow as molasses, so after giving her their address, she hung up to give my daddy CPR. The operator called back to say, "Don't you EVER hang up on us!" to which my mother responded, "I'm giving him CPR - send an ambulance!" and hung up again. As it was, my daddy had close to 90# on my mother, so she was trying to get him on the bed, too.

When my mother had her first heart attack, I called 911, and they were there in a flash. I told the paramedics what her symptoms were, and that she usually went to a hospital across town. They were calmly getting her ready for the ambulance, and said to me, "Can you still get in touch with your brother?" I said yes, and they said, "Tell him we're going to St. Clair. We don't have the time to go to UPMC," still calmly. I was so impressed by their professionalism, I wrote a letter of commendation to them afterwards. She was technically DOA, but because of their speed and wisdom, my mother is still with us (another heart attack and 4 surgeries later!).

What totally ticked me off was the amount of people who did NOT pull over, even with the ambulance's loud speaker and a police escort!

I noticed that here in Charlotte, people tend to keep driving and pretend they don't see the emergency vehicles, and when you pull in front of them, or in their way to get out of the way of an emergency vehicle, they flip you off or honk!

In my hometown, Peoria, IL, you better get out of the way of that emergency vehicle, because it's coming through that red light, whether you stop or not.

The one bright spot of that day was that, since we had a police escort, three of the drivers who DIDN'T pull over were pulled over by the police! That's three drivers who learned an expensive lesson!

They should fine people who do 911 pranks...kinda like people whose burgler alarms give false alarms on a repeated basis.
I don't care if someone is 6 years old. A fine is in order.

I agree with you. Fine pranksters...I mean really its not like they don't have their name and address of where they can send the bill, especially given the options...

1. Send EMS to a call: it's a prank and someone else (who needed the service) dies.

2. Do not send EMA to a call: it wasn't a prank and someone dies.

They should send EMS and if it's a prank, fine them the $200 (on average) it would have cost to ride in it from the house to the hospital. Ok, maybe $100...but I would fine them.

In my city, you are only allowed one "grace" false burglar alarm....after that, its about $75 a pop. It doesn't matter if it was caused by Fluffy the family cat or something else.

Its more than that to send an ambulance to your house.