A serious look at 911

I get the same reaction pretty much every time I tell someone where I work. "Oh you work at 911, you must hear some really crazy things!" I always have to admit that crazy is certainly something I deal with daily. Inevitably, people then want to know what the craziest thing is that I've ever heard.

To be honest, the thing that blows my mind on the most regular basis is people not knowing where they are. I can understand if you have been kidnapped and stuffed in a trunk that you might not know where you are. Or if you have been knocked unconscious I can accept that you might not know where you are. Other than that, you have to know where you are. I can work with any other lack of information but I have to know where you are.

I get a lot of blank looks when this is my first complaint. Almost universally the response I get is this. "Well, can't you just trace my cell phone?" This drives me nuts. I'll be honest, yes, if you call 911 there is the chance that we can trace you. But what if that isn't working? What if it takes precious minutes or hours to track you down and you lose your life? Why would you be willing to trust your very life to technology working correctly? This is really not a good idea. One computer having a bad day or storm cloud interrupting the signal can mean you are not found in time.

Long story short, pay attention. Whether you are driving, walking, or riding with someone, watch where you are going. Look at street signs. Make a note of landmarks. Keep track of how long you are traveling. Any one piece of information can be what helps a 911 dispatcher get correct directions to the person who is trying to help you. Don't let your obituary read, "He died because the storm interfered with cell tracking. If only he had paid attention."

The things that make you say, "Wait....what?"

It's been one of those days again at work. I had halfway expected it, because it was Friday the 13th when I got here (gotta love night shift, because the day changes halfway through your shift). We get a lot of those calls that make you scratch your head or just sit for a second with your mouth open in disbelief...and we got a couple good ones earlier, that made me think of some others I've taken or been here for. So, for tonight's blog, a list of those calls or comments that make you stop and say, "Could you repeat that?"

Lady: My dog is going crazy. He's a prostitute dog, you know, like a drug dog and he's barking.

Man: I've been throwing up black stuff for 3 hours.
Me: I'll get you an ambulance on the way.
Man: I don't want an ambulance, I want you to tell me what this stuff is.
Me: (mentally) Gross? Nasty? Death? A cause for an ambulance? (verbally) I can't give you medical advice sir. Would you like an ambulance?
Man: Nah I'll just sleep it off.

Lady: I've taken pictures, mapped out a trail of the blood spatter, and I'm trying to get a mold of the teeth marks. Can you send me an officer to make an official report?
Me: Ma'am what's happened? Who is hurt?
Lady: My cat was bitten by something. Probably the neighbor's dog. Maybe officers can get some hair samples and help me prove it.
Me: (once I recovered) Ma'am officers don't come out to that.
Lady: Well then what do I do about my cat!!!!!
Me: An after-hours vet is probably the best bet ma'am.

Man: A troll threw me in a ditch. I need an ambulance.

Lady: I called 25 minutes ago about an ambulance.
Me: Ma'am an ambulance is on the way, you only called 6 minutes ago.
Lady: The Grim Reaper is gonna take me before they get here. Don't you care if I die? Y'all are just sorry.
Me: (again after a short recovery period) Ma'am they are coming as fast as they can, but they have to drive there and drive safely.

Man: I need an ambulance.
Me: Yes sir. What's wrong?
Man: I think I'm dying. I haven't eaten in a week and I can smell my kidney's from the other room.

I didn't have a response for that other than to send an ambulance, because I still haven't figured out how he got into a different room from his kidneys or why they smelled.

Lady: These here dogs need help. Someone glued them together. They can't get separated and the one on bottom is moaning like it's in pain.
Me:Ma'am the dogs are fine.

No, I wasn't willing to tell her they were copulating. Not a chance.

There are days when my job is very stressful, or sad, or hard. But some days it's downright funny....after I recover enough from the shock to laugh.

911 vs. 411

I am the first one to tell you that a lot of the time my job is funny. Yes, it has stressful moments and hard moments and heart breaking moments, but a lot of the time, it's just flat out funny. What is the definition and purpose of 911? A number you call in case of emergency to get assistance. Maybe it is the definition of the word emergency that people need a refresher course on. I have had people call 911 and ask what time it is. I've had people call and ask for a phone number. I've had people call and ask what time the fireworks or the parade start. And for the past two days we've had some pretty intense storms. People have called in trees down, lines down, lightening strikes starting fires...this is all fine. Good use of 911, even when we do receive 10-15 calls on the same tree. However, this is not 411. I am sorry your power is out, but no, I don't have time to look up the number to the power company for you. There are hundreds of people calling to report fires, wrecks, power lines in the road, trees on houses, along with the normal problems like fights, medical emergencies, alarms, missing people, etc. I have no control over whether your power is on or off. I have no control over whether your water is on or off. If it's a huge storm, yes I know why your power is off, and so do you if you stop to think about it. I can't fix it any more than you can. This is not a good reason to call 911.

Me: 911
Old Man: My power's been off for a full day!
Me: Yes sir, a lot of people have power outages, due to the storm. You would need to call the power company.
Old Man: It's dark! I'm not feeling well! I need my power back on!
Me: Yes sir, I understand but you'll have to call the power company.
Old Man: You call em. They'll do it for you.
Me: Sir, I can't do that. We can't do that for everyone, and the 911 lines are ringing. You will have to call them.
Old Man: Then give me the number.
Me: Sir, if you don't have an emergency I'm going to have to get off this line so emergency callers can get through
Old man: Lady, you are a *&%$@. Click
Me: *sigh*

Me: 911
Lady: I got up to get ready for work and my water's out
Me: Yes ma'am, there's a problem with a ruptured water main in your area. Water company has already been notified and they are working on it.
Lady: I have to get ready for work! I need water!
Me: Ma'am there is nothing 911 can do about that.
Lady: It says in the phone book to call 911 for water emergencies.
Me: Yes, that is if your house is flooding or something of that nature.
Lady: Well I want to make coffee and that's an emergency to me!
Me: (internally) I'd want coffee too (externally) There's nothing I can do ma'am. They are working on the problem
Lady: %&#$ You! Click.
Me *sigh*

Later, I laughed at these. At the time I shook my head. And it does get funnier. Some day I'll tell you the one about the lady who was trying to give CPR to a possum she'd accidentally run over. Good stuff.

The "I couldn't do your job" comment

I get this a lot when I tell people I am a 911 dispatcher. The instant interest and the comment "I couldn't do your job". In a lot of cases, that's probably true. Not everyone can do the job that myself and my fellow dispatchers do. It's not easy. I tell people it is the best, worst, most rewarding, hardest, most stressful, amazing job ever. The first and easiest thing you have to do is be able to multi-task. You must be able to simultaneously listen to a phone call, radio traffic, and your fellow dispatchers all at the same time. It's a lot to keep up with, and yes, I did say that was the easiest part of my job. On top of keeping up with all of that, you need to also be able to remember where every officer said they were and keep it logged in the computer. If you do not keep up with where your units are, whether they are police, ems, or firefighters. If you do not know where they are then you can not send help when they yell for help. The tiniest piece of info can be vital. An officer may tell you that he has stopped at a particular gas station. It doesn't sound like a vital piece of information at first. But what if he walks into a robbery in progress? What if he walks in and gets shot and only has time to yell for help? What do you do if you can't remember where he said he was stopping to get a soda? The one piece of information that slips through the cracks can be the piece that keeps someone safe and gets them home to their families at the end of the night.

Next is the level of busy. People call 911 constantly. It is rare, even in my smallish town, that an hour passes without at least one call. On a busy day, where there is a storm or a big event, I may take upwards of 300 calls in an 8 hour shift. I looked one time at the end of a huge storm and saw I had taken about 312 calls. Some of the people who have been there longer than I have have seen even more than that. There are times when it is all you can do to keep up. You may be hungry, but you have no time to eat. You may need to go to the restroom and have no time to go. Your needs and bodily functions wait if need be. It is not a desk job where you can walk away and your paperwork will still be there when you get back. If you leave, and there aren't enough people to answer the phones, a missed call can be someones life ending. Is every day that busy? No. Can you predict when it will be like that? Again no. You never know what you are walking into in my job. You never know when it will go from being quiet, where you are settled back reading, to chaos in a second. You will never know if the call coming in is something basic or a disaster. The stress level fluctuates and it can go through the roof in an instant.

Now, to the most complex part of my job. The callers. People call 911 at some of the worst moments in their lives. You have to ask them to try to calm down and answer questions while their lives are falling apart. My number one least favorite part of a call is when I ask "Where are you?" and get "I don't know" in return. The first and top piece of information I need is where you are. I can work through everything else to get you help if I know where to send it. Keep aware of where you are. If you need help, you want them to be able to find you. As an emergency call taker, we have certain information we need to get from our callers. Our responding units need to know what they are dealing with when they get there. People get angry at us for asking questions because they are panicking. They don't know how to calm down and answer. I've had people cuss me and scream "Just send them just send them just send them". I don't get to give up and hang up or throw in the towel. I have to fight through their panic with them and get the information we need. We need to know if there is danger for the responders and we need to prepare them. We have to find out what the situation is, because in certain situations we can help. If someone is not breathing, we can help the caller by giving CPR instructions. If someone is bleeding we can help with instructions on how to apply and maintain pressure. We need information so that we can provide information. We need information so we can make sure that help gets there quickly, safely, and with the right equipment.

So could you do my job? Maybe, maybe not. It's not an easy job. I've cried with callers and felt my heart break for them. I've been screamed at and wished I could yell back. I've heard some of the most pointless things and wanted to be a smart aleck. I've rolled my eyes, I've sighed, I've been rendered speechless. I've cried, I've hurt, I've gone home to stand and look at my family and reassure myself they are safe after some of the stuff I've heard. I've left my home in the middle of a storm where I worried for my family and gone to work to help keep other people's families safe. I've gone to work, sick, injured, exhausted. So have the other amazing people I work with. We endure because we are needed. And we will keep doing it for as long as we are needed. It's an amazing job, it's never the same two days in a row, and it's never easy. But we will be there when you need us, a calm voice on the other end of the line, ready to send the help you need.

Fly traps...the little known dangers

Next time you see a fly trap look at it from a 2 year old's perspective. It's brightly colored, shiny, sticky looking like a fruit roll-up. Perhaps that is what started the events of the evening. The baby came running into the back of the house with the air of a child who has stolen a magnificent treat and must hide it quickly. Want to guess what that "treat" was? He had found a fly trap, which HAD been in a secure, baby proofed cabinet. Have you ever tried to wash glue off the hands and face of a very small child? Especially if the glue is....persistent? The box the fly trap came from said, "If this product comes into contact with skin, wash with warm water and soap". Obviously, flies can read and this was put on the box to give them false hope. Soap and water just made the glue on the skin into clean glue. In the process of this washing, now Mommy and baby are both coated with glue. Plan B, soak in warm water failed royally. Plan C, scrub hard with washrag and pouf failed too. Plan D, use a baby wipe (which as everyone knows contains magical properties that remove stains of all varieties) also failed. By this time, I was crying, my adult helpers were crying, the baby was crying, and the bathroom was flooded by Plans A and B.

Should this ever happen to you, the solution is vegetable oil. Dab it on with a cotton ball, let it set on the skin for a few minutes and then gently wipe off.

I need a tranquilizer and a Benadryl. Lesson 2 for the day: I'm allergic to anti-bacterial dish detergent.

Karma

One of my newest favorite quotes is "Only a deep and abiding belief in karma keeps me off the roof with an AK-47". I love it. Simply put and very true. I have always believed in karma, even when I was a little bitty girl. Whatever it is that you put into the world comes back to you. I makes sense after all. You don't plant an old boot and grow a sunflower. If you sow trash, you reap trash. Lately, I've been having trouble remembering that and holding true to what I believe. Small and petty thoughts have crept in and I've wished bad things for someone who persists in hurting me just because he can. My inner child has been stamping her foot and screaming "NOT FAIR! NOT FAIR". I need some help getting back to who I am and what I believe. No revenge, for karma sorts us all out in the end. And so, readers, if there are any out there, how do you cope when you have someone difficult in your life?

The Art of Being Cordial

In the past 4 years I have discovered that there is an art to being cordial. And like all art, not everyone is capable of accomplishing the task. I'm polite to people, usually. Nice even, most of the time. Does that mean I like everyone? Not. A. Chance. I'd say that a few more times to get the point across but I'm going to assume you can just reread it if necessary. Being polite and cordial is not something I practiced, it is an inborn skill. I always find myself thinking that deep down I don't know what the person being ugly is going through, and forgiving them on technicalities. If that doesn't work, I think how I feel when someone says hateful things to me and that is usually enough to prevent me from opening my mouth and letting fly. Lately, I've started wondering if that is a good thing though. The world has gotten rude and cruel. People are mean for the sake of it and rude because they are angry, whether it's at you or someone else. There are less and less people who will be polite because it's the right thing to do and I've started wondering if I should be one of those people who fights fire with fire. So far, I have managed not to....most of the time. I'm not perfect, a couple times I've lost my temper completely and said every ugly, nasty, hateful, unkind thing in my mind. It hurts me to think back on that, because once it's out, you can never unsay it. Even if you apologize, it is out there forever. I think I will keep it the way it is now. It does come across as weak sometimes, but I'm happier appearing weak to those who don't know any better than I would be if I became one of those people who used words as a weapon.