Mom Dies After Boy's 911 Call Considered Prank

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

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

Update: Detroit, April 7, 2006, 12:24 p.m.) An investigation is underway in Detroit after a six-year-old boy called 911 to get help for his mom, and the operator acted as if it were a joke.

Detroit NBC Affiliate WDIV reports that six-year-old Robert Turner called 911 on February 20. He thought his mother, 46-year-old Sherel Turner, had passed out. She was later found dead.

911 tapes detail the call, where the boy tells a female operator that his mom had passed out. The operator demands to speak to an adult before sending police.

The boy eventually hung up and called back a short time later. This time, the same operator warns the boy that he could get in trouble for making a prank call to 911. The boy said police didn't arrive until three hours later and found his mother dead.

The family is now pursuing a lawsuit.

Officials said the 911 operator will be disciplined, but because of her years of service she will not be fired.

Police continue to investigate.

Another From: http://www.ktvu.com/family/8529743/detail.html

Mom Dies After Boy's 911 Call Considered Prank
Detroit Police Investigate

UPDATED: 12:18 pm PDT April 7, 2006

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.


Robert Turner


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.

[arlene22 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close arlene22]

What a shame.

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

"Kimberly Harris, the union president of AFSCME Local 1023, said more than a quarter of phone calls received by 911 operators are prank calls. "

How terrible...if 25% of the calls are pranks then they should fine the person or make the parents responsible.
I believe every 911 call should be responded to in a timely manner.
I realize that dispatchers have to make some judgement calls, but to assume that the child was calling as a prank right off the bat is a little disheartening.

I remember once I dialed 911 by accident, At work we always used 9 to get an access line and then the number 1 for toll calls...well I was at home and did the same thing, so I thought I cleared the numbers, but didn't and I inadvertently dialed 911..
My then husband was a cop, so I knew everyone and told them I didn't need any help...they showed up anyway!!

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

This story reminds me of another tragedy.

The other day, a two year old drowned in a pond in England when he got out of a yard. A man said he saw the boy walking alone down the street, but didn't stop because he was afraid of what someone might say about a man taking a little boy into his truck.

How sad has our society gotten?

[arlene22 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close arlene22]

[quote=jericap
I remember once I dialed 911 by accident, At work we always used 9 to get an access line and then the number 1 for toll calls...well I was at home and did the same thing, so I thought I cleared the numbers, but didn't and I inadvertently dialed 911..
My then husband was a cop, so I knew everyone and told them I didn't need any help...they showed up anyway!![/quote]

When my nephew was a toddler, he picked up the phone and started playing with it while my sister was in the shower. Apparently, if you dial a string of numbers, like 9-5-3-1-7-1, you get 911. Well, as my sister was in the shower, she hears male voices in the house, bolts out of the shower to protect her son from intruders, and confronts a roomfull of firefighters, stark naked. Ten years later, we are still teasing her about it...

But seriously, although it's a pain and a waste of precious resources, it's far better to answer the questionable calls for help than to miss one that seems questionable but turns out to be genuine.

[Cat Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cat]

But seriously, although it's a pain and a waste of precious resources, it's far better to answer the questionable calls for help than to miss one that seems questionable but turns out to be genuine.

...But if no triage were to be done, and a team were sent out on each and every call, even those that were prank calls, with 25% being false alarms, it would be only a matter of time until a genuine emergency could not be addressed because resources were out to treat calls that later turned out to be pranks. Resources are finite and to waste them will result in no resources for the real deal.

It's likely that there's a protocol in place to weed out the pranks from the bona fide medical emergency calls. Sadly, this is as it needs to be.

[Oracle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Oracle]

...But if no triage were to be done, and a team were sent out on each and every call, even those that were prank calls, with 25% being false alarms, it would be only a matter of time until a genuine emergency could not be addressed because resources were out to treat calls that later turned out to be pranks. Resources are finite and to waste them will result in no resources for the real deal.

It's likely that there's a protocol in place to weed out the pranks from the bona fide medical emergency calls. Sadly, this is as it needs to be.

The problem is endemic to that 911 call center. There was another case (don't know if this involved the same operator) where a woman was shot and the operator called it a prank call and delayed sending help:

Fieger played another 911 tape at the news conference Monday. It's audio of a call made in January 2005 by Lorraine Hayes, who claimed her husband had just shot her.

"I'm shot in the head," Hayes said in her first phone call to 911 at 9:28 p.m. "My body's numb."

But the operator did not seem to believe her. At one point she asked Hayes if she was a mental patient, according to the tape.

"If you got shot in the temple, you probably wouldn't be able to make this call," the operator said.

"I'm dying," Hayes responded.

The operator then asked, "Would you put somebody else on the phone?"

Hayes could not convince her husband to get on the phone.

She called again about 25 minutes later after no help arrived.

"Ma'am, I'm shot in the -- I'm shot twice," Hayes said.

"OK, you said -- first time you said you were shot in the temple. Where's the other bullet?" the operator asked.

"In my chest, I think," Hayes said.

"But you're able to call on the phone? That's a miracle!" the operator said.

"Ma'am, would you please come. I'm dying," Hayes said again.

According to the tape, the operator told Hayes police and medical help were on the way. But Fieger said they never arrived.

"The only way police and EMS ever came was -- Lorraine called her son in Minnesota, who then called the Detroit Police, who then responded after 10-o-clock," Fieger said Monday.

[CC_dad Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CC_dad]

Emergency services operators playing with fire - your life maybe???

I understand the argument that there are finite resources involved in emergency services and somehow you need to draw the line. But these operators must understand that they determining who even has an opportunity to live or die by their intuition on what's a legitimate emergency vs. a potential prank!! I wouldn't want that type person determining my fate or the fate of one of my family members. It's truly a sad situation and shows the lack of compassion by a select few in an urban city. And the Jeffrey Fieger's of the world end up making millions off these situations. And by the way - Fieger got hold of a copy of the tape before someone in the Detroit system destroyed it and subsequently tried to deny a call had ever been made.