Cold and heartless much?!!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter staropeace
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My partner's last job was as a 111 (911) dispatcher. Sometimes they are required to 'shock' a caller in order to get the relevant information. If you can't get a location, you can't send help. It sounds awful, but the most important thing at that point, is to get the caller coherent... and they are trained to be able decide how best to do that with each situation--will they always get it right? No... but they do have to try different things.
But this is a child. I do not know bout this Flake. It still feels bad.
It does feel bad. But if that dispatcher can't get help to her--he has to also live with that for the rest of his days. By any means necessary, you must get the help to your caller, if you can't then there is no point in you being on the other end of that line.
That's good to know Flake. We don't realise what most jobs entail unless we've done it ourselves.
I read about this, and I hope that dispatcher enjoys a future career in the fascinating world of fast food. "Stop whining" is what you tell a ten year old that can't decide between a cheeseburger and chicken nuggets. Not a teenager that just saw their father get hit and killed. There are other tactics that would be much more effective. I'm sure dispatchers are trained to use them, not just given generic instructions to shock people to get answers. I'm willing to bet that they're taught what to say. I get what you're saying, Flakey, but I think this ball got dropped. Sure, everybody's human a messes up. But people have to pay for their mistakes.
At the very least, I think refresher courses about how to get the desired results from distressed callers is in order.
At the very least, I think refresher courses about how to get the desired results from distressed callers is in order.
I'm still not convinced that the dispatcher made a mistake. If he got the girl to mentally go 'Huh? What did you just say to me?' Then he's got her thinking and able to respond in the way that he needs her to, so that he may get the details he needs to get her some help. Mollycoddling somebody that is part-way incoherent with shock often seriously doesn't make them calm down... it just feeds their hysteria.
Later, after the units have been dispatched, is the time for soft talk and letting her emotions run their course... we didn't get to hear the whole call, did we? (I'm not sure..) So I'm not sure whether this dispatcher was able to cater to those (less immediate) needs.
Flake this is what I found about the conversation between dispatcher and girl. I'll paste the article in case the link does not open- link has video of conversation...
[Warning: Some may find the 911 audio disturbing.]
A 38-year-old man and his fiance were changing a flat tire over the weekend when they were struck by a vehicle on a Maryland highway. The man’s 13-year-old daughter was sitting in the backseat with her little brother. She saw her father — who later died — run down. She watched the other car speed away. Then, frantically, she dialed 911.
That’s when a dispatcher told her to “stop whining.”
Rick Warrick got out of the car to change the tire Sunday night on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near Laurel, about 20 miles from Baltimore. His fiance went with him. He had reportedly just finished tightening the last lug nut on a spare when a driver in another vehicle hit them and kept driving, NBC reported.
When Warrick’s daughter called 911, the dispatcher didn’t ask how old she was, and called her “ma’am” several times. He asked to speak to someone else. Then he told her to “stop whining,” according to audio released on Thursday.
“Are they conscious right now?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yeah, one of them. One of them,” the girl told him.
“So two people were struck?” he asked.
“Yeah, they’re just laying here,” she said.
“Okay, let’s stop whining. Let’s stop whining,” he said. “It’s hard to understand you.”
During the five-minute phone call, the dispatcher asked the teenager a number of questions to find out her location and the victims’ condition. Some responses were coherent and calm. As expected, others were chaotic and confused.
“What kind of injuries do they have?”
“I’m not sure.”
“So they’re awake?”
“Yeah. No, only one of them. Only one.”
“Are they both breathing?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.”
The dispatcher asked the teen repeatedly why her father was lying on top of his fiance, the Associated Press reported. She said that was just how he landed when he was hit. Then she said her father was breathing but not conscious.
“Can you walk up to these people and kind of find out some information for me?” the dispatcher said, sounding frustrated. “I don’t need to know what exactly happened. I need to find out — ”
Then the girl let out a screech and started saying something nearly indecipherable.
“Ma’am, I need you to walk up to these people and I need you to look and tell me what’s going on with these people.”
“They are just laying here!” she yelled at the operator. “Nothing. They are just laying here.”
“Okay, is there someone else there I can talk to because it’s so hard — ”
“It’s only my little brother and I’m talking better than him right now.”
Capt. Russ Davies, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, told the AP the dispatcher should have tried to calm the girl down, telling her help was on the way, rather than telling her not to yell or whine.
“Dispatchers are trained to take control when they have a hysterical caller to focus them, but how [the dispatcher] proceeded to do that doesn’t meet our expectations of how that would occur, and we’re going to presume the public feels the same way,” he said. “That’s not how they expect to be treated when calling 911 in an emergency like that.”
The dispatcher, whose name has not been released, was reassigned to another position during an internal investigation and, depending on the investigation’s findings, could ultimately face termination, Davies told the AP.
At the end of the call, the teen became frantic, asking the dispatcher to hurry.
“Can y’all please hurry up?” she said.
“Ma’am, ma’am, please stop yelling. Stop yelling, please.”
Warrick was rushed to a local hospital, where he died, police said. His 28-year-old fiance suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
Police said they have not gotten a description of the vehicle that hit Warrick and his fiance and that no arrests have been made.
A 38-year-old man and his fiance were changing a flat tire over the weekend when they were struck by a vehicle on a Maryland highway. The man’s 13-year-old daughter was sitting in the backseat with her little brother. She saw her father — who later died — run down. She watched the other car speed away. Then, frantically, she dialed 911.
That’s when a dispatcher told her to “stop whining.”
Rick Warrick got out of the car to change the tire Sunday night on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near Laurel, about 20 miles from Baltimore. His fiance went with him. He had reportedly just finished tightening the last lug nut on a spare when a driver in another vehicle hit them and kept driving, NBC reported.
When Warrick’s daughter called 911, the dispatcher didn’t ask how old she was, and called her “ma’am” several times. He asked to speak to someone else. Then he told her to “stop whining,” according to audio released on Thursday.
“Are they conscious right now?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yeah, one of them. One of them,” the girl told him.
“So two people were struck?” he asked.
“Yeah, they’re just laying here,” she said.
“Okay, let’s stop whining. Let’s stop whining,” he said. “It’s hard to understand you.”
During the five-minute phone call, the dispatcher asked the teenager a number of questions to find out her location and the victims’ condition. Some responses were coherent and calm. As expected, others were chaotic and confused.
“What kind of injuries do they have?”
“I’m not sure.”
“So they’re awake?”
“Yeah. No, only one of them. Only one.”
“Are they both breathing?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.”
The dispatcher asked the teen repeatedly why her father was lying on top of his fiance, the Associated Press reported. She said that was just how he landed when he was hit. Then she said her father was breathing but not conscious.
“Can you walk up to these people and kind of find out some information for me?” the dispatcher said, sounding frustrated. “I don’t need to know what exactly happened. I need to find out — ”
Then the girl let out a screech and started saying something nearly indecipherable.
“Ma’am, I need you to walk up to these people and I need you to look and tell me what’s going on with these people.”
“They are just laying here!” she yelled at the operator. “Nothing. They are just laying here.”
“Okay, is there someone else there I can talk to because it’s so hard — ”
“It’s only my little brother and I’m talking better than him right now.”
Capt. Russ Davies, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, told the AP the dispatcher should have tried to calm the girl down, telling her help was on the way, rather than telling her not to yell or whine.
“Dispatchers are trained to take control when they have a hysterical caller to focus them, but how [the dispatcher] proceeded to do that doesn’t meet our expectations of how that would occur, and we’re going to presume the public feels the same way,” he said. “That’s not how they expect to be treated when calling 911 in an emergency like that.”
The dispatcher, whose name has not been released, was reassigned to another position during an internal investigation and, depending on the investigation’s findings, could ultimately face termination, Davies told the AP.
At the end of the call, the teen became frantic, asking the dispatcher to hurry.
“Can y’all please hurry up?” she said.
“Ma’am, ma’am, please stop yelling. Stop yelling, please.”
Warrick was rushed to a local hospital, where he died, police said. His 28-year-old fiance suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
Police said they have not gotten a description of the vehicle that hit Warrick and his fiance and that no arrests have been made.
Emergency dispatcher to 13-year-old girl as her dad dies: ‘Stop whining’ - The Washington Post
Thanks, Spidey. It's entirely possible that this dispatcher didn't end out his call in the way he should have, and if so then he should at the very least be given more training.
It's also possible that the comments from Capt' Russ Davies are damage control... as media (once again) pick something up and run with it.