11 News investigates: 911 not answering

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — A call to 911 can be the difference between life and death, and callers naturally expect a quick response. In at least three recent cases, however, nobody answered the phone.

“I just kept looking at the phone… I’m thinking, I’m panicking,” said Dorothy Sanderson “Maybe I dialed wrong?”

Sanderson says she called 911 from her parent’s home when her mother suffered a stroke. According to her phone records, it rang for about a minute before she gave up.

Fortunately, Sanderson is a nurse. When nobody answered, she says her instincts kicked in. They got into the car and began to rush to the hospital.

During the drive, about three minutes later, 911 called her back.

11 News obtained the dispatch recording of the call. “We received a call from your cell phone,” the dispatcher said, “did you have an emergency?”

“I do, but I’m just taking to the ER,” Sanderson responded.

“You do, but you’re doing what ma’am,” the dispatcher asked?

“I’m taking her to the ER,” Sanderson said. “It took too long for you to answer.”

As a nurse, Sanderson says she knew how important it was to get a stroke victim to the hospital quickly. “I’m just appalled,” she later told 11 News.

Sanderson is not alone in her frustration. Jessica Alvey’s husband tried to help when he saw a car accident on his way to work. “He picked up the phone and called 911 and again he didn’t get an answer,” she said. “He actually has a record on his phone about how long it rang. It was about a minute and 45 seconds.”

Jennifer Mallonee and her husband say they thought they’d lose their 1-year-old son when he started choking. Their desperate call also went unanswered. “He was on the phone running in and out of the house – for 30 seconds and still no one answered,” she said.

11 News approached the Communications Manager for the Colorado Springs Police Department, Tina Young, who manages the dispatch center where each of these three calls should have been answered, to ask about the delays.

“It’s a nationwide problem,” said Tina Young. “And a lot of it has to do with a lot of different reasons.”

Young says that with the increasing number of people carrying cell phones, the number of 911 calls has jumped to an all-time high. Still, she says, people shouldn’t give up on their 911 calls. “They need to stay on the line because we will get to it,” she said.

People like Mallonee or Sanderson say that isn’t good enough, however.

This could have been so much worse,” Sanderson said. “It could’ve been horrific.”

“5 minutes could’ve meant the difference between life or death,” Mallonee said.

Luckily, both of their stories ended happily. Sanderson got her mother to the hospital in time and she is expected to recover. Mallone knew CPR and was able to clear her son’s airway.

Tina Young says that anywhere from six to nine call takers are on duty at that dispatch center at any time. They field both emergency 911 calls and non-emergency calls to 444-7000. They answer an average of about 500,000 calls each year or 200 per call-taker each day.

Young added that they’re doing all they can with what they have.

Read the story here.

Related Stories

• No Related Post