6 year old's 911 call mistaken for prank

[Ryoutarou]

Click

Clearly in this situation, the operator screwed up, and at the very least that person should be fired or somehow demoted and taken off of handling calls. Manslaughter or criminal neglicence might be a more suitable charge though since someone actually died as a result. The whole point of 911 is to save lives, and operating properly, 911 is supposed to report to any call. I have very little doubt that some degree of justice will be dealt on this, and hopefully it not only brings that particular dispatcher in line, but hopefully effects some nationwide change.

 

[Chairman Kaga]

"In a statement Friday, Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said it was important not to rush to judgment and indicated she would have no further comment because of "imminent or impending litigation.""

Yes, I do believe it IS important to rush judgement on this; 911 operator incompetency and apathy has been on the rise in recent years and nobody's lifted a finger to stop it. She sounds more concerned about making sure she's not held responsible for anything rather than condemning what's happened as any rational person would do. I'm sickened, but not at all surprised.

 

[Dawg 2005]

Oh my god, that poor kid. If a six year old kid calls saying his mom passed out, why the hell would someone ask for an adult? That adult is dying. o.o

I feel so bad for that family. The operator's that handled this need to be charged with manslaughter. Seriously, I'm just sickened.

 

[Chibi-chan]

That is horrible. Just...sad on the child's part. I hope it doesn't leave him with severe emotional scars... That child was smart and I admire that and feel his intelligence shouldn't have gotten the response that it did. I really wish I hadn't checked this page...that's just wrong.

 

[fallen_natsumixx]

... It's sad, isn't it?

It's pitiful to see a smart six year old boy, who was trying to save someone's life, doing something he was taught to do in Pre School, only to get a scolding for it.

 

[pokejungle]

Well, welcome to America kids.

Land of the Free, and home of the Stupid. I won't waste my time reiterating what all of you said. It's sad, sickening, yeah.

 

[Allstories]

Yeah, I live in Michigan, so this has been on the news several times. I think it's pretty stupid. What was the kid supposed to do? Give the phone to his mom and have her be all like "UHH, YEAH, I JUST FAINTED. PLEASE SEND OVER SOME COPS AS I AM DYING HERE. YEAH, THAT'D BE GREAT, THANKS"

 

[Lily]

Regardless of past antics, the operator's lack of trust and readiness ultimately killed his mother. That's just...sad. ._. Meh..

 

[Frostweaver]

And this is any worse than the taped record of the 911 emergency line during the September 11th attack because...?

If anyone heard the operator's response for the Sept.11 attack, we know how incompetent and lack of seriousness the phone operators are. There's thousands of phone calls rushing in that day talking about the same thing how the twin towers are collapsing, and they reply with "Just stay where you are we'll get back to you *hangs up* Are they serious? Pfft. It can't fall that easily."

Welcome to the Land of Reality~

 

[Kylie-chan]

It's so sad that people do that crap so people do mistake it for a prank... but that person SHOULD get charged with negligence... at the very least they should lose their job. -_-; Over here, we're told to teach our kids [well, not our kids XD I'm a kid myself, but yesh] how to do an 000 [911...] call to the ambulance and the police and the firefighters... <_<; That just shows what a responsible parent or whoever taught the kid to call was... or how smart the kid was... that's just sick and wrong .__.

 

[Ryoutarou]

And this is any worse than the taped record of the 911 emergency line during the September 11th attack because...?

Find one person in this thread that has said that. You can't, can you? We aren't comparing it to that, put that scale, this is nothing compared to that. You're missing the point. This was the fault of one careless person who forgot the line of work that she was in. These people are trained to take every call seriously, no matter what. This rarely happens and I can't even recall the last time an isolated case such as this one came up. As much as people are going to say it is, this isn't the fault of the system. It's the fault of one person and one person alone. To even be a 911 operator, you need to take lots of tests, both written and mock phone calls before you become one. This person obviously passed those and forgot what she learned back then.

 

[MegaDitto]

If a 6 year old was intelligent enough to call the numberi n the first place then he should have never gotten that kind response from the operator.Espacilly in the situation the child was in. I find it sad for what happened.

911 calls may be fake but that sill gives no reason for what the operator did.

 

[Esupio]

thats horrible, That kid must have been distraught and probably still is, the fact that his mother died because of an un-trust worthy operator, probably doesn't trust kids after they smashed one of her/his' windows with a ball of some type

 

[Wilph]

I don't see how telling the operator your mum has passed out could be mistaken for a prank easily. Perhaps if he had said something absurd like "my mum is stuck up a tree" (bad example) but you get what I mean.

very sad.

 

[Lt. Surge's Raichu]

I think this is very very sad. What is wrong with wrong with the operator? I think they should be seriouse with everyone that is calling, instead of have doubts in them

 

[Pendant]

Well, welcome to America kids.

Land of the Free, and home of the Stupid. I won't waste my time reiterating what all of you said. It's sad, sickening, yeah.

I fail to see how this is connected with America, to be quite honest. It sounds more like an incompetent operator and the general decline of society.

It's sad that a 6-year-old child has to suffer for doing the right thing because of another person's sheer stupidity and ageism.

 

[Guest123_x1]

it'll happen again

Although I was shocked that something like this happened, I wouldn't be suprised now if any further incidents like this occur. It's also very unlikely the operator(s) would get fired. Must be because it's Detroit.

-ottermi619-
At least the local media has something more to hound on about in addition to Delphi and GM.

 

[Arcanine]

If anyone heard the operator's response for the Sept.11 attack, we know how incompetent and lack of seriousness the phone operators are. There's thousands of phone calls rushing in that day talking about the same thing how the twin towers are collapsing, and they reply with "Just stay where you are we'll get back to you *hangs up* Are they serious? Pfft. It can't fall that easily."

The 911 attacks and this are different things. At least the operators told them to do something (even if it wasn't the right thing). Sure they shouldn't have treated the attacks the same as a simple building fire. But they had nothing else to go by on. At that time they didn't want anyone to die from smoke inhalation (so the operators told them to do what they tell others in a building fire).


Anyway I think that operator should be fired and sued. "Don't play on the phone | If you call again I'll send the cops over and you'll be trouble | Let me talk to an adult" and all that. She was stupid enough to not even send cops over to see what was going on. And by her actions someone is dead, someone lost their life over the operator's stupidity. And what's worse is she still has her job, and her union (or the gov since it's a government job) is going to bat for her case. Go to any factory out around here, if a worker walks up to his boss and punches the boss then that worker is out the door. But in this operator's case she still has her job. And I'm sure everyone will say someone dying over the operator's actions is worse then the actions of that woker that hit his boss.

 

[Ryoutarou]

It's also very unlikely the operator(s) would get fired.

They're letting her keep her job because of her "long hard years of service". I've heard that the family's layer is going to go after her though, and not the city itself.

 

[Cherrim]

She should be fired...that's gross misconduct.

The 911 operators, as far as I know, are paid to answer the phones and dispatch services. In cases where someone prank calls 911 and then hangs up, the operators have to trace the call and phone back to make sure there's nothing wrong. If no one answers, they have to assume the worst and send out the standard service vehicles just in case there's something seriously wrong. So even if a young child calls, prank or no prank, if they don't admit that it's a prank, they HAVE to send out those support vehicles. It's a matter of life and death, and in this case, the latter prevailed because they didn't stick to their code of conduct.

The fact that the poor child had to call back twice, only to get the same response is terrible too. x_x;