6. “He wasn’t the same for ages.”
My brother in-law got a call where a woman had her house invaded and she was hiding in the closet. She narrated hearing them walk around the house and when the men found her screamed and he stayed on the line as they stabbed her to death.
She bled out for whole minutes. She managed to drag herself back to the phone and spoke to him about how scared she was and her love for her family. Her last thoughts were of sadness that she wouldn’t make it to her daughters graduation.
Even typing this out kills me. God that fucking sucked.
He wasn’t the same for ages.
5. “…help wasn’t arriving.”
I once was on the phone with an elderly man for 20 minutes telling him to do CPR on his dying wife. I could hear him grunting and doing the compressions. He was getting upset that help wasn’t arriving.
When the first unit finally got there (small town middle of nowhere call) he walked in and told us over the radio there was no patient.
Turns out the man had dementia and his wife had stepped out to the store or something and he just lost it ?
4. “As I connect the call he whispers to her…”
I take police emergency calls but answer 911 as well.
Elderly man calls 911. His wife passed away in bed next to him in the night. Per protocol we’re to connect to ambulance. As I connect the call he whispers to her … “you weren’t supposed to go before me”. This was years ago and it still breaks my heart today.
I never talk about it.
3. “Worst part was I received an award for it.”
21 year old called me and gave me his address, was crying a lot. Through the sobs said “I’m upstairs please don’t let them find me”. Heavy crying for 20 seconds before a loud bang and a long grunt of his body in revolt from the gunshot to the head. 15 minutes of him gasping for breath slower and slower until the police got there.
Next call was his brother calling to say he had posted a goodbye message on Facebook and he was racing home to check on him but wanted the police to stop by just in case. Worst part was I received an award for it. Never seemed right to get recognition for that.
2. “I’ve heard them all.”
I’ve been a 911 dispatcher for almost 30 years now.. i love my job and could never do anything else. i’ve been on the phone doing pre-arrival child birth instructions when babies took their first breath, and have been on the phone when people have taken their last breath, be it from natural causes, suicide or homicide, I’ve heard them all.
However, The one that sticks with me the most, Memorial day, 1999 a father called me to tell me that is daughter was on fire. Literally on fire. you could hear her screaming in the back ground. over 95% of her body was burned.
Somehow she managed to survive, multiple surgeries, loss of fingers and toes. and scars all over… but it’s amazing, she finished high school. going to college… and a couple years ago she added me on facebook…
1. “I could hear her struggling to keep her head and phone above water….”
I was a 911 Operator in Mobile, AL the day Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. We started getting lots of calls from New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast for some reason. I guess they started routing to us after all the 911 centers to the west of us started going down.
Anyways, I got a call from a woman who said she was trapped in her house on Gordon Street between Florida and Law. I was confused at first because we have a Florida Street in Mobile, and after checking and double checking and not being able to find her address I asked her what city she was calling from and she said “Im in New Orleans”. I tried to route her to New Orleans 911 and New Orleans Fire Department but could not get through. She started screaming and said the water was coming up into the attic where she was. I told her to find something heavy and break the attic vent out so she could get out on to her roof, but the vent was too small for her to crawl through. She sat down and started crying. I told her I would stay on the line with her for as long as she wanted me to. I stayed on the line and listened as she cried, prayed, cussed, and prayed some more.
A little while later I could hear her struggling to keep her head and phone above water, then the phone went dead. To this day I don’t know if she lived or died. I quit 911 three months after Katrina.
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