6-year old calls 911; dispatcher thinks it's a joke
 

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4739612

It's horrible... Regardless if it was a prank or not, they should've taken it seriously.

She has a dead person on her consciounce, that should be all the punishments she needs for the rest of her life.

Disgusting. There's no other words for it. I just can't believe this kid wasn't taken seriously.

Wouldn't like to be in the operators shoes right now I can tell ya.

Thanks for not thanking me, Chao, :(

And yes, that's a shame. The lady deserves to be fired.

An investigation is underway in Detroit after a six-year-old boy called 911 to get help for his mom.

I can understand why she thought it was a joke but still, it's horrible.

Well, to be fair, they must have a process for distinguishing prank calls, and this poor little boy must have sounded a lot like a prankster. Don't get me wrong, I think it's shocking that a woman died even after the emergency services were called, but I don't believe that the woman responsible deserves to be fired for it. Disciplined, yes, and given a hell of a telling-off, but not the loss of her job.

That's awful. Fuck years of service. That lady deserves to get eaten. Hope that family wins zillions of dollars.

That's sad :(....Kids grow up with their parents telling them always call 911 incase of an emergency.....but when one actually arises, the dispatcher won't take the kid seriously. That is just plain sad. It sort of goes back to a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch scenario. Just because some phone calls are pranks, doesn't mean they all are. That lady diserves to be fired, who cares if she has senority. Who knows....this may happen again....

This also sort of reminds me of that saturday night live skit. The one that was a parody on Emergency 911....but I wouldn't have thought that dispatchers would be that stupid and careless in real life...but this just proves it...

I think it matters more if the mother died because of not getting help faster or was she already dead?

What exactly is this experience? Being able to discern if a call is a prank or not?

What the hell? She's not going to get fired? I just hope the jury gives her a long prison sentence so even if she isn't fired, she wouldn't be able to work anyway. That's just ridiculous.

WHAT THE ****!?!?!? That woman should have been fired for ignoring that child's cry for help!!!

It's Detroit.

This is very reassuring, seeing as how I will probably be moving down there really soon. :(

That was a very horrible thing to do. She should of never done that and was in the wrong for what she did.

However, you all must realize 911 is flooded with prank calls and useless traffic from people all the time. It's a serious problem because it has gotten to the point where real calls are delayed because some idiot is calling 911 for directions to a bar.

So it isn't just her at fault here. The populace is at fault as well because too many people are not using 911 for what it's designed for. Because of this operators are forced to find out if it's real or not and quickly hang up. That way real calls can get through.

People need to be educated and there needs to be harsh punishments for not using 911 properly. The dispatchers need to be taught better methods at finding fakes as well.


It's more like a ton of bad apples ruining the whole bunch. >.>

Jury? Prison sentence? It hasn't gotten to that yet. I don't think it ever will actually.

Pretty Much. Too bad many people would rather not think of that and would rather have the operator be blamed completely. Go America!!!

She'll have a guilty consciounce, We all know that.

On a personal note:

I remember calling 911 when I was 7 because my mom had some strange tumor or something that made her faint while making lunch. It sorta freaked me out but she told me to call dispatch when she regained conciousness. I just said my mom was sick and stuff, and I handed the phone over to her. About 10 minutes later EMS arrived.

Basically, yeah, I would have an idea of the frustration these operators face. It's really up to the discrepancy of the operator, but what should have been done is that they should send the emergency crews there then if it is indeed fake, then the emergency crews could settle for a lawsuit to get back the fees of dispatching emergency crew out. From what my school principal said in high school, it's about $1500 for each time the fire bell is rang, either accidentally or "This time for serious". I don't know the "fees" for dispatching an ambulance or police, but I'm guessing about $500.

Do you guys know how many 911 calls are not even for real, though. Kids call 911 illegitimately all the time. And then there's even adults who think 911 is pretty much the universal number fo the fire department, hospital, and police department. I mean, people will just up and call 911 if they have to file a police report. A good number of 911 calls aren't emergencies, and operators probably deal with such bullshit more often than important stuff.

I bet the sheer number of calls the operator has handled properly stands up well against this single failure. Shit happens. As long as it isn't chronic then I don't think it's a huge deal. Sad, yes, but still.

This kid doesn't even sound series on the phone.

Yeah, I was projecting into the future since the family is seeking a lawsuit. But yeah, it might not even get that far. =\

No excuse. She should have been fired.

One day, karma will get her. And the irony then will be just plain funny :).

That's really sad though, she should at least be fired if not sued.

Please tell me how you'd distingush a fake call from a real one then.

1.Keep in mind that a lot of people constantly prank phone call 911

2.The kid called and wasn't even panicking, which could potentially be a prank phone call.

3.It's Detroit.

Damn, man...just....damn....

As the mayor of detroit, make the punishment of 911 prank phone calling, to be sent to Guantanamo. Or you know... increase the fine.

Where does it say that?

I think he meant..pranking?

Did you watch the Video on the link? When he first called, he wasn't "panicky"

The kid is 6-years old. He has no idea what's going on, he was probably worried, but probably not enough to start panicking like crazy.

I know, I know. But it still had the potential of being a prank phone call or not very important because he wasn't panicking.

Think of both sides. She most likely has to go through fake phone calls every day. Think of what she has to go through. If it was a fake phone call it would have wasted time that could have been used to save someone in real danger.

I'm not going to condem her and not think of what she has to go through.

It's actually best not to panic in these conditions. When you panic, it becomes extremely difficult to communicate. You also become a greater danger to yourself and those around you.

Concerning the article, I feel sorry for the kid. Honestly, concerning the statements about, "The kid didn't even sound panicked!" - So? Does that make it his fault? He didn't know what was happening. All he knew was what his Mother told him: call 9-11 in case of an emergency.

Is the dispatcher at fault? Yes. According to the article, because of her experience, she won't be fired. I understand that pranksters constantly hound 9-11 operators, but after years of experience, you tend to be able to distinguish reality from fiction.

But accidents happen. I don't think she should be fired or sued for everything she is worth. She is suffering right now. That doesn't mean she wasn't at fault and should face justice; the truth is, it was an accident that'll haunt her mind for the rest of her life.

Cut her some slack. She's going through the worst punishment of all.

Let me get this straight with everyone.

I know it's not good to panick in the situation but I was just saying, not panicking gives a better chance for it to be a prank phone call.

I still understand what the women had to go through and I feel sorry for the boy.

A shame for all parties- I agree that if she believed it to have been a prank then at the time she made the right call based on her judgment/experience- of course being wrong is what she has to live with.

Ugh...tragedic :(
This kind of thing makes me wish that they had some sort of system that could instantly track the number of whoever called 911, and provide further at-a-glance info (eg. family status and age distribution).

Uh, how exactly would that lesson the probability of a prank phone call?

Geez, that's awful. Everyone loses in this situation :(

I wonder what's going to happen to both the child and operator. The operator probably has to make decisions like these every day, so I'd imagine that it'll be difficult to "pick and choose."

What I'm a bit confused about is how the little boy got the same operator twice. I'm not familar with the 911 system, but how did he manage to do that?

I wonder how they are going to "discipline" the operator. Having doubts about a call from a 6-year-old kid is acceptable but at 6 years of age I don't think kids that young can even grasp the idea of a prank call. This incident reminds me of my own city's policy towards alarms where the police won't respond to just an alarm, someone has to call in reporting an incident at the site of the alarm for the police to respond.

I live in Detroit...while tragic, I'm not sure this is something to pursue in courts...if so, the money from the court decision should go to the boy's continued care and proper training of operators and/or the dead woman's favorite charity....not to the greedy family members and the lawyer I saw on the news spot.

It's sad that this happened. Now that child will not have his mother anymore.... but after reading some of the posts here, I realize that it is true that people are assholes and prank and don't realize that 911 is for emergencies....Too dumb to use a phone book and look up the numbers for less important things, I guess....

Oh, I didn't notice the video. =P

I pretty much ignored anyone siding or semi-siding with this female operator.


Where I come from, Regardless of whether its a prank or not, Police WILL show up. If it is a prank, they'll discpline you accordingly in person.

I feel bad for this little boy, He didn't know what was going on. The lady on the other line sounds like a total bitch. It's not a matter of her being stressed on the job from other prank calls, if someone says they need help: You help them anyway. If it is a prank, you send the police there anyway.

The operator was wrong. She wasn't doing her job properly. I don't care one way or the other, that's plain wrong.

It's just like that here Devo. I went to dial 611 I think it was and hit the 9 by accident on my cellphone. Police showed up no more than 10 minutes later. I don't know where you're from honestly, but I suppose in more quiet/expensive suburban areas like Long Island (where I live), police don't have as much work as they would in a bigger (and I say this without knowing first hand but I get this impression) crime filled city like Detroit.


I still say though, The lady shouldn't have been that rude. She just had an attitude. She could've at least handed the phone over to someone else, she comes off increibly bitchy for someone who's job is to try to calm people down and let them know help is on the way.

It's this simple.

You lose more by not taking the call seriously, than taking it seriously and sending out help to a prank.

If it's a prank call, then so be it. They can immediately go back to their stations, but if it's not taken seriously, then someone can lose their life. As they did here.

They shouldn't even ask to elaborate. The kid is 6 and problem was nervous and at a loss for words.

You send out help IMMEDIATELY, and if it's a prank, then big deal. They go right back to their stations.

There is so little to lose, by going out just to make sure, and so much to lose by not taking the call seriously.

The woman should quit her job. If I made a mistake that big, then I'd quit. It's a dissevice not to.

I agree with what you both are saying. 100 Percent.

As far as I see it, there's no reason not to send someone out.

I know it's not the coolest thing to do to judge someone but judging by this ladies attitude and tone in the call, she isn't out to help people really. This is just a job for her. In her case, I would be worried about plain losing my job or money, which will ultimately happen to her or whatever branch operates that line so I would send out a dispatcher anyway.

There's no right in what she did and how she handled the situation. I'm suprised she isn't fired just because of her seniority. I'm more suprised she made it to a point where she has seniority with an attitude like hers.

That's true, but in life/death situations, every second is invaluable. You need a help team there ASAP. You can't even waste a second of time.

If a person needs to be revived, there is a small window of time before they can't be brought back.

Well, let's just hope that if people hear about this and have done prank calls to 911 in the past, that they refrain from doing so in the future. Parents hearing about this could also try to put more emphasis in telling their kids that 911 is an important tool and is not to be fooled around with. Maybe it's a little too optimistic to expect that, but who knows.

Very True! Though i can understand how it can be a big deal if officers waste
time checking out a prank call.. I still believe it's better to check regardless.
It was stated earlier that they can't have police going out to investigate calls
because they might be pranks and it'll waste time from checking out REAL calls...
This sounds like maybe there's a lack of police there then... Couldn't this be
fixed with more officers on the job?

Personally, i called 911 once when someone tried to attack us and break out
windows while at work. I was pretty panicked and the operator told me
to CALM DOWN and explain to her the situation so should could understand it.

I feel so sorry for the child... The relatives must be restless right now..

Geez..
That's horrible.. These are the people that regardless if it's a joke or not, send out help because.. On TV. They tell the kids, "If you need help, dial 911" who else is he gonna call?

AT the same time, there was a recent study done, that many people are using 911 services for the most rediculous reasons.. One guy wanted to know the directions to get to his desired destination!

So in retrospect.. It's awful what happend, the lady should be fired, but knowing she could possibly be the reason why a life wasn't saved .. that's a lot to carry.


She sholdn't be fired.. Come to think of it, if an incident like this were to happen again, I doubt she would even consider it a joke at all and send out help.

.dc

They keep on showing this on CNN. I just love how the news story is just a rotation of the clip showing the little boy and one single tear falling down his cheek as he gazes off the screen mournfully.

I'm a horrible person for finding that even remotely amusing.

Yea, actually, that makes sense! Maybe she won't make this mistake again.

This is truly a sad story however and both sides of the picture are correct in my frame of mind. Yes the operator was "wrong" by not automatically sending help to the little boy but at the same time she was right in not doing so because if it had been a prank and she had sent out an ambulance, then that would have been one less out there and ready to help someone who might have needed it. It does sadden me that even though we try to instill in our children the need to understand that 911 is there for them to use for emergencies only, adults still seem to be confused as to what an "emergency' consists of. Sometimes I wonder if they shouldn't just establish classes for adults reteaching them how to properly use 911 and at the same time show them how to find the correct numbers for the fire department, police, etc.

That is definitely true. I always thought you just dial 911 for all problems.

Maybe they don't teach people to look for other numbers because it would be as convienent and easy as dialing 911 in an emergency.

I have to agree. Considering the idiot wouldn't take the call seriously without speaking to an adult with all reason and logic saying that the fucking adult was passed out it sounds more like she didn't think it could be real just because it was a kid calling and nothing else. She does deserve to get eaten...

Hahahaa, we're into too much of a shit hole to do that. Tons of city works just got done getting laid off not too long ago and our Mayor just had a conference the other day explaining how he had to pick between laying off even more cops or eliminating trash pick up. Besides, so many fuck heads prank around with things like 911 around here, that I actually don't blame the operator for thinking it was a joke.

1 in 4 calls in Detroit are prank calls.

If anyone heard the actual 911 call, it's pretty disturbing. The operator scolds him for playing around and says something along the lines of "I don't care! Get an adult on the phone or you'll be in serious trouble." As a kid, you're scared enough with everything going on and with a 911 dispatcher saying you'll get in trouble, it's probably terrifying.

The kid is probably tramatize for life. His family needs to up the lawsuit, with the death of his mother through negligence as well as emotional trauma to the child.

True--we don't know how long Mom was dead, but that dispatcher did the wrong thing.

This is what she should have done:

Asked the boy if he had any neighbors that could help him.
If not, she should have aksed the boy to try to wake up his mom while she was on the phone with him.
If that failed, police should have been dispatched (most police have a knowledge of basic first aid).
She should have kept the boy on the phone the entire time, talking to him.

9-1-1 Operators are trained to respond to all calls as emergencies. Whether they are from children or not.

How do I know? Bro-in-law's a cop, and Sis is an EMT.

Just wondering, where's the 1 in 4 statistic from kat?

I'm all for saying that the women didn't handle the situation the best way she could have. But, something tells me that due to the issues that all city workers have been facing lately, that management/the system is what's really more to blame. Especially since this incident isn't isolated. There was another incident that got popular because of this. A lady was shot in the head, lived, called 911, and the dispatcher thought she was fucking around. (Did this make nation news too?) Pretty hard to tell she wasn’t faking, considering how monotone her voice was. I bet that management gets on these people ass about it, for money/resource reasonings. While at the same time, I bet they offer little to no help, training, or assistance.

shot in the head and lived... pretty unrealistic

Yes, by charging them, the child will feel loads better.

Why do people always think lawsuits help emotional trauma?

..It's not unrealistic. You do know alot of people get things much bigger than a bullet shoved into thier heads and survive? Take a stroll through any area just hit by a tornado for instance. There have been instances of people with huge pieces of wood shoved into thier heads and they survived.

It all depends on where it landed. For all you know it could of grazed the head or hit a less important area of the head.

Not sure about emotional trauma, but if they won money, it could definatly go to the care of the child or charity or college fund.

In retrospect, that's exactly what she should have done.

really disgusting all the call must have an answer

They don't, but that's the beauty of the America. You can sue someone and then fill in your empty hole of sorrow with an endless supply of cash. Or at least use that money to be able to afford a ridiculously expensive therapist when you get older. Because in case you haven't heard, money buys happiness.

Besides, what's the alternative. No matter what, the end result is what it is so how else is he going to reimbursed for what he went through and going to go through, having had his mother taken away from him for the rest of his life.

Agreed. I'm not sure a 6-year old would exactly understand the concept of lawsuits, and nothing could ever replace his mother.

I don't know if I'm the only one that feels this way, but I feel terribly sorry for the dispatcher. Imagine the burden that she will have to carry for the rest of her life, she probably thinks that she caused the death of the woman, whether or not she was dead when the boy called to begin with.

I know its been a while for this thread but I came across an article in the local newspaper.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...71_call12.html

The article doesn't say it was the same dispatcher, but I'm sorry... They really need to work on their people skills and give some folks the benefit of the doubt.

I can see Detroit dispatch company(ies) will lose alot of money if this keeps up. Not are the lawsuits affecting them, but they're now getting to the point where the city's representatives are getting involved. Whom are also going to be charged the same.

I bet they'll complain or make excuses such as, "We're only human. We can't be everywhere at once and we're trying our best to do our work/job." But then, why hire such people if they think their job is to identify prank calls instead of being a freaking dispatcher? Screw prank calls, take them anyway. If the call is a prank call, go to your freaking superior and ask for a bonus or reimbursement for the time wasted in handling the prank call. They've got audio recordings going on each call, so there's proof too incase their superior asks for it.

By the way, who is making these decisions to not send the accused dispatchers to jail? This is so contradictory of what's going on with these accusations. They identify where the fault lays and why it happened. But they dare accuse something not human (prank calls from the past) and feel sending the dispatcher to jail would be unfair?

I don't think it should matter if the call is a prank or not, police officers are always out in their cruisers patrolling the city anyways, why not just send the closest one to investigate? if they discover it was infact a prank call, then they fine the caller for whatever amount of money it costs to have someone dispatched to them. it's fighting crime and getting reimbursed for it.

the operator in this case should have atleast asked the boy some simple questions, like "is your mother breathing" and things like that. it shouldn't matter if it's a prank or not, it's their job to help protect and serve and like I said, if it turns out to be a prank then those responsible can be fined for it.

This is so good stuff right there. The dispatcher could of EASILY confirmed if the call was a prank call or not by asking certain questions. Questions that he/she could mix up to confuse the caller and figure if the caller understands whatever health conditions arose. Like, some examples could be:

"Is your mother breathing slow or heavily?"
"Put your index and middle finger together on your mom's forehead, can you feel a pulse?"

etc, etc, etc...

Yes, the questions could of been something relative to a health condition, or something completely stupid, yet sounding like it makes sense. You can tell someone is in jeopardy if their breathing rate has changed so significantly. But you cannot tell a person's pulse by measuring any sort of beats on their forehead. Here the dispatcher could immediately understand the call is not prank call as the 6yr old would of undoubtedly checked the forehead for a pulse and reported none.

This is awful. I have to side with those who think she should be fired. Unless she was trained to "spot and ignore pranks", in which case dispatcher company should pay the price. If they have to send the police out for nothing, that's what they have to do. They can bring a large fine with them, if it really is a prank, but they NEED to be called.

"Yeah right lady. An elephant ran through your front yard. Ok sure Mister, an elephant just knocked over your mailbox. Yeah right buddy. Liquor store robbery, officer down. And I'm Edward G. Robinson." -Chief Wiggum

I don't care if it was Detroit, I used to live around there and they probably deal with a bunch of calls a day. (I wonder what the total amount is in Michigan now-a-days!) No child should witness their parent dying and no one takes it seriously. Personally if I was in that family I would make sure the person in dispatch is dealt with personally. Now you have a child that could possibly think he didn't do anything right when his instinct told him to get help.

Not saying that it justifies her actions but there is another problem with this whole scenario. I live somewhat near Detroit(Royal Oak to be exact). The retarded mayor that somehow got reelected inspite of being a moron(Kinda like Bush) thought it was a good idea to reduce the number of police stations and fire departments in detroit. Yes that's right in the city with one of the highest crime rates in the country they reduced the number of Police and Firemen. Why? To save taxpayers money. I'm sorry but if I lived there I'd rather be a little poorer and safe then have more money and be dead.

I'm with the people that think the woman should be fired. Although it's nowhere near the same thing but at the grocery store I work at there are lots of terrible employees that won't get fired simply cause they've been there so long. If people have seniority protecting them they start to think they're special and don't have to worry about doing their job right. In this case someone died because of it. That's just not right.

As for all those people saying that she has to live with knowing this woman's death may be her fault, so what? How do you even know for sure it really bothers her? Their are alot of real scumbags out there that sure as hell wouldn't care that they caused someone they never met to die.