Posted on 04/08/2006 5:33:11 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
DETROIT -- A 6-year-old boy's 911 call for help was thought to be a prank, but the call was real and the boy's mother died, according to WDIV-TV in Detroit.
Robert Turner called 911 to get help for his mother, Sherel Turner, 46, whom he found lying unconscious on the kitchen floor of their Detroit apartment in February, the station reported.
"Then I had felt her tummy. She wasn't breathing. Then I had called 911," said Robert. "I told them to send an emergency truck right now."
911 Operator: "911. What's the problem?"
Robert: "My mom has passed out."
The 911 operator, however, did not take him seriously and told him to stop playing on the phone, the station reported.
911 Operator: "Where's the grownups at?"
Robert: (Inaudible)
911 Operator: "Let me speak to her before I send the police over there."
"I tried to tell them she wouldn't talk," said Robert.
Robert: (Inaudible)
911 Operator: "I don't care. You shouldn't be playing on the phone. Now put her on the phone before I send the police out there to knock on the door and you gonna be in trouble."
Robert: "Ugh!" (Hangs up.)
Kimberly Harris, the union president of AFSCME Local 1023, said more than a quarter of phone calls received by 911 operators are prank calls. She also said that everybody does not express their pain or emergencies the same way.
"That operator could have had five prank calls. Kids calling in prior to that call. And please, don't think that I am trying to make an excuse. That was a tragedy," said Harris.
Officials said the 911 operator will be disciplined, but because of her years of service she will not be fired.
"I know that operator. I know that she is a very good operator," said Harris. "She is very thorough."
Robert said every time someone talks about his mother, he starts crying.
Police continue to investigate.
Flavor Flav was right. 911 is a joke after all.
Posted yesterday.
Tell it to the little boy.
This is just PLAIN OLD TRAGIC!!!!!! That child will live with this the rest of his life!! The 911worker should be FIRED!!
(...because of her years of service she will not be fired.)
Just what we need: union rules in life and death jobs.
Well, of course it could be that this woman was already dead. A lot of ambulance calls are too late, even with a quick response. From the information given, you cannot conclude that the lack of 911 response actually was responsible for the death of this woman.
You know the system is badly broken when some cynical moron can screw up this badly and not be fired. Disgusting
Spoken like a true, smarmy defense lawyer.
There was no response to a 911 call.
She should be fired, and the family should have legal recourse.
This sounds like an awfully high estimate. More than 25% of calls to 911 are prank calls, even in her area? I find that very hard to believe. Prank calls are different than calls that do not rise to emergency situations, like frivolous (but true) calls that you locked yourself out of your house, etc.
Hopefully there will be a proper review of this particular call. Even hang-up calls need to be followed up on, at least in some/most states, so a call by a child claiming his mother is unconscious should merit at least a welfare check before telling the kid he's going to get in trouble for calling and then failing to respond.
the union president of AFSCME Local 1023, said more than a quarter of phone calls received by 911 operators are prank calls. She also said that everybody does not express their pain or emergencies the same way.
"That operator could have had five prank calls. Kids calling in prior to that call. And please, don't think that I am trying to make an excuse. That was a tragedy," said Harris.
"That operator could have had five prank calls. Kids calling in prior to that call. And please, don't think that I am trying to make an excuse." said Harris."
Too late. You just did.
I think you miss the point here. A timely emergency response, even in the form of a police welfare check, may or may not have saved this life, but NO response was a death sentence.
What, it's too much to ask that the news be accurate?
The headline says the woman died after the call wasn't answered. But there is absolutely nothing in the article that supports that contention. Frankly the absense of that information makes it look far more likely to me that she was already dead.
After all, it's a much better "hook" if the paper could say the woman was alive and the 911 operator was directly responsible for her death. But they did not do so. The only reason I can think of to not go for the cheap and easy sensational story is that there was no story there.
"Emergency! I need help!"
"If you don't get off this phone right now I'm sending the cops"
"Works for me. Thanks!"
911 is taped. How many prank calls there may have been is easily ascertainable.
Harris engaging in hyperbole when the facts are readily on hand indicates that she is part of the unprofessional culture that led to the problem.
Agree, but she probably won't even lose one day's pay. Public employees rarely do.
That makes no sense. If the woman was already dead, the lack of a timely response had absolutely no effect on her death.
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