911 puts woman on hold and she dies in fire!

[Shell Beau]

Can you believe this shit?

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4289729

[Scarlett17]

1. Unfortunately, yes. I believe it.

We had an incident here in Detroit where a five year old boy called 911 because his mother had collapsed on the kitchen floor.


The boy called 911 at 5:59 p.m. and reached Nichols telling her, "My mom has passed out."

On the 911 audiotape, Nichols is heard saying, "I'm gonna send the police to your house and find out what's going on with you."

Asked why she did not request a police car, Nichols said she believed the call to be a prank.

"I was trying to get him to admit he was playing on the phone," she said. "I heard a mumble, but I did not really hear what he said."

Weingarden said Nichols was a terrible witness.

“I don’t think she told the truth and I think the jury saw through that,” she said.

On the night in question, Robert called back at 9:02 p.m. and reached operator Sutton, who scolded him but requested a police response. Detroit police arrived at the apartment in about five minutes, records show, and found Sherrill Turner dead.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/NEWS01/80118030/1054/SPORTS06


Both operators were charged criminally and the first operator was found guilty of Willful Neglect Of Duty. The second operator was found not guilty. Just disgraceful.

[Shell Beau]

2. That is disgusting!

I would always assume anyone who called 911 was calling for an emergency. If it is a prank then I would rather be wrong the other way.

[Scarlett17]

7. I agree 100%.

I can't imagine a situation where a 911 operator would be disciplined for responding to a call that ended up being a prank. She had absolutely to reason to dismiss his call for help.

[AnneD]

3. One of the classes that I teach to the PreK and kinder...

is how to make a 911 call. I teach them how to dial, what to say, to hang on, etc. They understand what it is for-believe me. Even a 4-5 yo. knows when something is going on and wants to help. I have had a 7th grader I taught CPR to save her younger brother, but no wee ones yet. I feel better just knowing they can help if need be.

[Scarlett17]

6. It's so tragic

that this little 5 year old did EXACTLY the right thing only to be threatened and ignored by the people he has been taught will help him. I've seen interviews with him and it is just heartbreaking.

[Dr. Strange]

4. Sad, but I think her death probably had more to do with the fact...

that she was smoking in bed than the 27-second delay in the 911 call.
At least the operator wasn't just assuming that the call was a hoax (like the Detroit case).

[pitohui]

5. i'm afraid i think the same

hard to imagine what 27 seconds one way or another can do once the bed is already engulfed

but i do hope they fix whatever caused the gaffe without feeling obligated to hang the operator for manslaughter or something

sometimes stuff just goes wrong and it's very sad

[Shell Beau]

12. 27 seconds could have been life or death for any other situation. You never know.

[oregonjen]

8. My neighbor's little girl called 911 and had to redial because they didn't believe her

Two idiot neighbor boys were smoking something and caught their attic on fire. They ran across the street to our neighbors and their awesome 9 year old called 911. The operator didn't believe her, so she had to redial and call 911 AGAIN. They finally dispatched the fire dept. that is only two minutes away from our street and low and behold, there was an actual fire. I can't believe they didn't believe her. By the way, the house on fire was right next door to mine. My kids were really little and we were napping, only to awake to 3 fire trucks and two police cars! Luckily no one was hurt.

[Xithras]

9. The bed was already on fire when she dialed 911.

They could have picked up on the first ring and it wouldn't have made a bit of difference.

[Shell Beau]

11. But that is beside the point! Asking someone to hold who calls 911

is absolutely horrendous! She may have died anyway, but seconds are precious when it is an emergency!

[Sultana]

10. .

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: