911 Operater Tells Boy Not to Play With Phone as His Mother

Then it took at least an hour (3 according to family) for someone to arrive?!

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Too many times 911 operators let their own feelings influence their judgment instead of simply following proper procedure.

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You'd think that if there was a five year old on the phone..that the chances of them making a prank-phone call would be pretty darn slim. Dont you think?

Now if it where a 15 year old or something..MAYBE I would give pause for a second. But that is disturbing....

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I don't think it was so much the operator thought the child was making a prank call.....little children pick up the phone and just start mashing buttons, getting someone on the line.

I'm thinking the 5 year old wasn't talking clearly, between being upset and being, well, 5 years old.

I've gotten calls that when I answer, it's obviously someone really young...when I say, "let me talk to your mommy"....you hear the phone drop as they run away.

You know, the more I think of it, the more I'm convinced this woman was an insensitive idiot. 911 calls must always be given consideration.

Once, I dialed 911 instead of 411, when the operator answered I realized my mistake and hung up without saying a word....within a few seconds she was calling back....I felt embarrassed and apologized, but in a way it made me feel safer knowing my call was checked on.

welcome to a2k southerngentleman.

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The boy called a second time and the second operator told him to quit playing with the phone. Nobody called the number to check out the story. Now the woman's family is filing a suit against both operators.

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I've accidentally dialed 911 before by hitting a speed-dial number as I hung up the phone. I saw the phone was "on" and clicked it off, not realizing what I had done.

The phone immediately rang. It was a 911 operator calling me back to make sure everything was okay. I explained what I was guessing had happened and thanked her profusely for calling back.

Five year olds can generally talk well enough to be understood. For him to be so upset he couldn't speak clearly should have been some indication it wasn't a prank. Also, a child too young to speak isn't going to be calling 911 as a prank.

How awful that we teach our children an ambulance, policeman or fireman will arrive to save us from harm simply by calling 911, only to have that not be the case. This mother had done right by teaching her child this, and look where it got her.

Simply awful!

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Personally, I hope that the family of the dead woman should sue the pants off those operators.

What really concerns me, is how to explain what happened to that poor little kid whose mother died, even after he attempted to call for help!

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And died right in front of him, presumably.

Yeah, very concerned for that poor kid.

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There's a harsh lesson not to depend on others that that poor little boy didn't need to learn. Poor kid.

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More on this story - but also about a number of other, similar ones - here. There's a picture of Turner's daughter and son there too.

Quote:

Saying Sherrill Turner's death isn't an isolated case, Fieger also said he represents another woman whose calls last year to 911 -- she said she had been shot in the head -- were met with skepticism and delay. A dispatcher asked her if she was a mental patient.

Fieger said Lorraine Hayes is a paraplegic because of her injuries and only got help after she called relatives in Minnesota, who contacted Detroit police.

[..] when Hayes called 911 in January 2005, she clearly and calmly asked for an ambulance, saying, "I've been shot in the head. I'm dying."

In a tape and transcript Fieger claimed is a record of Hayes' call, the woman provides her name and answers the dispatcher's questions politely with "yes, ma'am," and "no ma'am." She tells the dispatcher she has been shot in the head twice by her husband and is on the floor and bleeding. She gives her address and repeatedly asks for help.

The dispatcher continues to question her, asking at one point: "Are you a mental patient?"

Hayes responded, "No ma'am."

The dispatcher also warned her -- much as Robert Turner was scolded by a dispatcher this year -- that she would get in trouble if she made a false report.

In a second call, according to Fieger's documents, Hayes told a dispatcher, "I'm getting ready to die." The dispatcher told her that police and EMS were on the way. Hayes repeated her address and said she had been shot in the temple and the chest.

The dispatcher responded, "But you are able to call on the phone? That's a miracle."

"I'm dying," Hayes said. "I swear to God."

Quote:

When Damion was stricken with an asthma attack, Martin, an accountant who lives on the west side, said she called 911 and was told an ambulance was on its way. When none arrived, she said she and her fiance called again and again.

She said an operator told them an ambulance would arrive in 7 to 8 minutes, even though EMS technicians told the operator and another dispatcher they did not know when they could arrive because they were on the other side of town. But Martin said the operator repeatedly told her the ambulance was on its way.

It took the ambulance 22 minutes to arrive. By then, Damion had died.

Martin said Monday if the operator had been truthful, she would have taken her son to a hospital.

"If she had told us the truth, maybe he'd be alive," she said.

Reminded of:

Public Enemy - 911 is a Joke

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I have goosebumps and tears imagining this child, doing what he was taught, watching his mommy die and some other adult whom he is supposed to trust, telling him he is in trouble.

oh that poor child.

Thinking that the child was playing on the phone, as the operators claim.... wouldnt they be inclined to send police, if not for trusting the child, to find out WHY he was alone long enough to play with the phone??!

I have a friend who worked dispatch here in austin for a long time. She had to quit because it was a horrible job.
Children calling 911 is VERY common. It actually makes up a large % of the incoming calls a day.

Most of the time kids just want to 'know whats gonna happen'. And sometimes they call when they have a fight with thier friends because they think the fight in an emergency.
My friend said, alot of times, the kids calls were yelling about someone taking thier toy and the police should take them to jail. Laughing

This doesnt excuse those 2 women from what they choose to do, but a VERY small part of me can POSSIBLY see why they would second guess at FIRST..
but, if the child continues, as this one did... common sense should have kicked in, and just to be safe, someone should have been sent to that house.

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From the few occassions I've had to call 911 in Austin, I will have to say the operators were wonderful. It's a helpless feeling watching someone lying on the floor, or whatever, and there really being nothing you can do at that moment.

They stayed on the line until I could hear the ambulance.

Take it from me, the sound of an ambulance getting closer can be the most wonderful sound in the world.

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sad, inexcusable, and infuriating. it reminds me a bit of all the school shootings that were preceded by the shooters posting lists of targets on webpages that everyone treated as pranks.

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Thank you for the welcome Chi Tea! Not the cheeriest way to say hello- but that's why I've enjoyed my time here so far. Its nice to be in the office and talk about current affairs.

As I was going to say....
It's not just sickening, but its scarey. I don't even want to believe this, but apparently this isn't all that uncommon- for there operators to live in their own little world and QUESTION the legitimacy of someone calling into their phone center for help!

Not that uncommon (Operators Question Callers)

I would like to think it was a rare occurence, but its not as rare as it should be.
Shocked

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911 Operater Tells Boy Not to Play With Phone as His Mother

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