Friday, May 25, 2012

911 dispatcher snored through emergency call

A woman who called 911 after her husband was unable to breathe found a snoring Maryland dispatcher at the other end of the line. The woman called 911 from her Montgomery County home on April 4.

According to a recording of the call, she repeatedly says "hello" but gets no reply. A second dispatcher intervenes and gives her first aid advice as the first dispatcher can be heard snoring. The woman's husband was later taken to a hospital.


YouTube link.

The slumbering dispatcher did eventually wake up and ask for the caller's address. He was apparently unaware the caller had been on the line for about six minutes.

A fire official says the employee was placed on administrative leave. The dispatcher was a uniformed firefighter who was 17 hours into a 24-hour shift.

5 comments:

Gareth said...

A 24 hour shift? Is that even legal?

Anonymous said...

Someone's head needs to roll over this and it's not the dispatcher's

Patrick said...

24 hours? -.-

Anonymous said...

What a nightmare!

Ed T. said...

This is such sketchy reporting. The caller's husband was unable to breathe? That usually results in death. The caller's husband having difficulty breathing. The dispatcher answered the call and then fell asleep or did another dispatcher answer the call and somehow patch the sleepy one in? If the media wasn't in such a rush to demonize emergency personnel perhaps they'd have time to actually do their jobs correctly.