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

That is sad. Kid tried to do the right thing and his mother was left to die.

Real Sad.

Some one is in trouble....

I have dialed 911 by accident and hung up thinking it didnt register(dont ever do this on purpose)
The cops were here in 2 minutes flat. I was embarassed, but also extremely impressed and told them so.
They said they tried to c/b and confirm and noone answered (cause I ignored the call waiting as I was already in conversation) .
The system works , as long as you dont have idiots like this 911 operator behind the switch . She should not only be fired, but also prosecuted for negligent manslaughter or whatever they can throw at her. "she wont be fired because of her years on the job"? how the HELL does that factor into it? , thats even more reason to punish her.
And the family WILL win the lawsuit, thats for damn sure.

My understanding is that a trained person (police, fire fighter, doctor) is not exempt from the "good samaritan" law.

I believe that if I helped a person with CPR and break the persons ribs and puncture a lung and they die I cannot be sued because I was a "good samaritan" and did not have to help out. However, the police, EMT and fire fighters must help and I believe can be sued if the same situation occurs.

All I can say is CHA CHING for that boy!!

In my Dr. Evil voice....one hundred million dollars!!

Terrible...Thats like the 1st thing you teach kids, if there's trouble to call 911...Been drilling that into Scouts heads since they 1st became Tiger Cubs.

I don't buy the Years of Service Excuse Either.....Negligence is Negligence...Period

I thought regardless of whether it was a prank or not, they had to respond. I.E. you dial by accident. Isn't it true that people get put on hold at times now with 911... If we need more money for decent operators, I wouldn't complain about my tax dollars going there. What a shame. That kid is going to have some anger issues with police when he gets older, I can tell you that much...

ya can't just assume its a prank....and do nothing.

depending on the cause of death to the mother

its a darn good law suit ......especially ... if the death was preventable.

the 911 operator should be instantly fired.

...fired or turned over to the family for retribution

I've been a dispatcher and I know many others so I understand how frustrating things can be. But this dispatcher is directly responsible for the death of that woman and should be prosecuted as such. You may think something is a prank but you can never act like that and this is a perfect example why. This completely blows my mind.

What the dispatcher did was unexcusable to that six year old kid. Its not up to her to determine where the call is false. Its up to the officers who repsond. If its an address with a chronic false call problem then charge the people there when the officers arrive with making a false call. That usually solves that problem.

The good samaritan law protects anyone including police and fireman from suit when they stop or get called to help someone. It came about because a guy stopped at a crash and pulled this kid out of a burning VW on route 3 in Quincy, Mass., and the kid sued because his arm was cut by glass. Court threw the suit out and the legislature filed a law quickly shortly thereafter. I cracked a guys ribs when I did CPR and he lived to die on a golf course about a year later and he never complained. You can't do anything about the injuries. Where would the person be if you didn't bother with CPR of the Heimlich. The thing I have always dreaded is walking into a home where there is no D.N.R. and someone has just become unresponsive and half the family says she just wanted to be let go and the other half is screaming for her to be resucitated. You have to attempt resucitation or you can kiss your butt goodbye. Most people/families nowadays wait an hour after someone has passed and then they call, so post mortem lividity has set it and death is obvious and resucitation fruitless. Also nurses who have a higher standard of "duty to care" than police or fire can call a death making a police response unnecessary, which keeps the death more personel and dignified.

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

Police continue to investigate. :doh:

This is so wrong in so many ways, in my town they send a car out no mater what, If that number gets dialed then a car goes to the address for the phone number.

Actually in the post I put up prior to this one when I said their is nothing than can be done about injuries I should have said even with the best of intentions and many years of training injuries can and will occur regardless of how cqareful a rescuer is. Some people are brittle and one never knows the extent of the injuriy your dealing with at crashes. When I cracked the guys chest plate I repositioned as your suppsoed to do and it didn't crack anymore after that. I have done cpr four or five times and nothing else ever happened. I'm sure their have been instances when a some gargantuan person has done cpr and just obliterated someones chest. Even the biggest and the smallest of people can be trained to effectively perform cpr.

As a side note E911 only works on Verizon phone lines. It will not work on a resellers line, RCN Line, Comcast, VOIP, or any other non Verizon line. Verizon built, and maintains the system, and it is proprietary. Just something to think about before changing phone companies, it could literally be a life or death descision.

now thats like fscked up... i called 911 when i was little, then hung up.. i was about 5 or 6.. and they called back my mom talked to them and they sent a crusier over to just check things out... thing is, the crusier never showed up.. but seriously, that lady should be fired, she shouldnt of thought it was a prank call, its just wrong..

...fired or turned over to the family for retribution


what do you think they would do ? Sit on her ? Throw Mcdonalds wrappers at her ? Oh that's right.....
shoot her.

The defense will try and prove that dear momma had been dead before the call and it wouldn't have mattered.

pretty sad...

The defense will try and prove that dear momma had been dead before the call and it wouldn't have mattered.

pretty sad...

it's wrong either way
inexcusable!

I saw it on the news and the way it went, that kid should get a substantial settlement or get the best lawyers in the country. What that dispatcher said to him was plain awful, who the hell is she to judge what kind of call it was. Like what was said earlier in the thread, it's up to the police to determine:rocketem:
I don't get that statement about her not being fired due to her years on the job, :huh: well that makes it even more offensive, she should have known better:bsod: :rocketem:
She should be more than disciplined, the poor kid did everything his mom taught him and they failed him. That kind of thing is going to cause alot of backlash in that screwed up city.

Manslaughter ? What if the mother was died before the phone call.

rst I know but what would YOU do to punish her. Yes she could have been dead...but then again probably not. Tough case to prove either way. Glad I'm not the lawyer trying to prove it.

THE ONE THAT REALLY LOSES IS THE POOR KID ONCE AGAIN. He's got no mother now. AND he's old enough to remember this for the rest of his life :(

I agree, maybe there will be nice foster parents to take care of the kid and he grows up OK

I think at the minimum she needs to lose her job then she needs to publicly apologize with something that means something to the family. Then I think she needs to make sure that family is taken care of for the rest of their lives. She should be barred for life from working in that position again. SHE alone has to live the rest of her life knowing what she did COULD have caused that woman to die.

I could see how it could happen. Imagine sitting behind that desk trying to answer a large city 911 desk and what these guys have to go through. Some get hundreds of calls an hour. But it wasn't her OR her supervisors decision to make. That's another thing...WHERE was the supervisor. These guys get recorded and are supposed to be regularly monitored? She should have flagged a supervisor on the spot. Car and an engine company to the scene is SOP for many communities for many addresses. It's what I pay taxes for in my town. Most are now Computer Aided Dispatch which controls everything.