MOBILE, AL — When a 9-1-1 operator says this: “Mobile County 9-1-1, what’s the location of your emergency?” What they expect to hear next is just that… an emergency. But far too often, it’s something like this actual call:

“9-1-1.”
“Hey, how you doin’?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Is this Mobile Water Works?”
“This is Mobile County 9-1-1″
“Oh, I’m sorry. Could you connect me to Mobile Water Works please?”

Or how about… this?

“Mobile County 9-1-1, what’s the location of your emergency?”
“Well, ma’am, it’s not quite an emergency. My brother’s power, he called me, and said the power’s been turned off, and I cannot find anywhere in the telephone book to call Alabama Power Company and speak to anybody. It’s always a robot. Is there a number or address where I can call them at in Mobile, Alabama?”

There probably is, but locating it is not the job of Mobile County’s 9-1-1 operators. Saving lives and property is.

“It’s a frequent problem that we have,” said Elaine Payne-White.

She’s been answering emergency calls at Mobile County’s 9-1-1 Center for nearly a dozen years. And every time she and her coworkers get a call on their screen, they have to assume it’s life or death.

Not exchanges like this:

“Mobile County 9-1-1.”
“Excuse me, ma’am, could you connect me to a phone number?”

And this:

“Mobile County 9-1-1, what is the nature of your emergency? Do you need police, fire or medical?”
“No. It’s my phone.”
“So you do not have an emergency?”
“Well, it’s my phone.That’s my emergency.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“Only one phone is ringing when calls come in.”
“Ok, any kind of phone trouble you are having, you need to contact your phone company, ok?”

“We attempt to answer at least 95% of our calls in 15 seconds or less,” said 9-1-1 center director George Williams. “But what really gives us problems sometimes, are those calls we shouldn’t be getting.”

And like these operators, he, too, has heard everything.

“It’s not an emergency,” he said, smiling, “if you’re on Airport Blvd and you want to know the address of a good restaurant.”

Which brings us to this call:

They claim the county discriminated against them because they were pregnant and Channel 2 Action News has learned a federal agency agrees.

“We can’t help that this is the reason God put us here to be able to give birth and our jobs should not be put on the line,” Leeneeka Bell told Channel 2′s Lori Geary.

Que’ana Morris said she was also terminated and told Geary she was shocked when her supervisor said “Once you rectify your problem which is your pregnancy then you can come back.”

Both ladies were pregnant with complications during their training. Both said their pregnancies led to their firings.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did a full investigation and after more than two years it agreed that Fulton County discriminated against the two women.

Letters show the findings from the federal agency.

“It was as if I had a voice when I couldn’t go directly to them to beg and to plead, ‘Hey this is going to happen.’ That voice came through the EEOC,” Morris said.

Both women said they not only lost their jobs but also their benefits, including health insurance, when they needed it most.

“I was worried about ‘How do I pay for pregnancy? How do I pay to deliver a baby?’ Nobody, no woman, should have to experience that,” Morris added.

The women said their firings sent a clear message to other women in their workplace.

“I think a lot of people got scared if they were thinking of becoming pregnant. The story was ‘Look what happened to the other two,’” Bell said,

Now, the two women plan to file suit against Fulton County. If they win, taxpayers will foot the bill.

“It’s unbelievable. The employer, a government agency, in this day and age, is going to make a woman choose between having a baby and having a job,” attorney Lisa Millican said.

Late Thursday afternoon, Geary received a statement from a Fulton County representative saying, “Fulton County is a progressive and inclusive employer that fully complies with relevant federal laws as well as our own internal policies and procedures. At no time did Fulton County take any prohibited action against the employees in question.”

Both women said they plan to file suit in the next few weeks.

Both ladies gave birth to healthy girls that are now 2 years old.

Read the story here.

These enhancements to the Red Cross Ready Rating™ program offer steps that organizations can take to be better prepared.

The new features include:

• An Emergency Response Plan Tool, which enables program members to build a customized plan to help their employees know their roles in the first 24-72 hours of an emergency;
• A Next Steps report that recommends specific actions members should take and the level of effort required to execute them;
• A Resource Center that includes preparedness tools including activities and exercises, so businesses, employees, and students can better develop and practice preparedness plans;
• A Ready Rating Store with emergency supplies at the click of a button;
• An enhanced user experience that enables easier sign up and access to all tools available.

“Companies and schools realize that contingency planning is a key element to running a successful operation, but getting started can sometimes be intimidating and overwhelming,” said Jim Judge, CEM, member of the Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council and executive director of Lake EMS Inc. in Mount Dora, Fla. “The new Ready Rating program components make it even easier to get started or to enhance current emergency response plans.”

Emergencies like power outages, water main breaks, and medical emergencies can disrupt daily operations. Disasters like tornados, floods, earthquakes, and fires have the potential to cause workplaces to fold and schools to close. In an effort to better prepare for such events, Ready Rating members complete a confidential assessment of their current readiness level for emergencies and receive immediate, customized feedback with tips and resources for them to improve their readiness scores.

More information about the program and the new components can be found at readyrating.org.

Read the story here.

From June, operators in England will get an extra 60 seconds before they need to dispatch crews to serious but non-life-threatening callouts.

Trials showed the extra time meant fewer double dispatches, where two crews are sent, freeing up resources.

This in turn meant the crews could get to the patient more quickly.

To date it has been standard practice to send two crews, to ensure there are enough staff on hand to deal with cases and to ensure the patient is reached quickly.

Eight-minute target

But by gathering more information before dispatch, the pilots showed improvements could be made without harming the overall response time.

Under the system, the most serious calls – category A – will be split into two groups.

Life-threatening cases where somebody has had a cardiac arrest or is unconscious and not breathing will be known as Red One.

Crews still have to be sent immediately to these calls.

But for the rest of the category A calls – Red Two – operators will get up to 60 seconds to decide what sort of response should be sent.

The overall target for reaching the patient will stay at eight minutes for all category A calls.

During the pilots held in London and the West Midlands, the new system reduced the number of vehicles sent out – because of fewer double dispatches – and cut the number of cancellations when vehicles were en route.

It also meant that patients were reached more quickly for both Red One and Two cases as there were more crews available.

Peter Bradley, the national ambulance director, said: “Making this small change will mean more ambulances and rapid responders will be ready to go and help patients – rather than be stood down while on their way to somewhere they aren’t needed.”

Read the story here.

And his voice may sound familiar to you.

A frantic call came into the Prince George’s County 911 Call Center late last week.

“My granddaughter drowned. She’s not responding please help.”

It was David McGowan who picked up the line.

When that blue light lights up saying you got a call it could be anything.

McGowan, only on the job for five months and still technically a trainee, was suddenly thrust into the middle of a life-and-death battle.

His biggest and perhaps only weapon was his steady baritone voice. And he used it to try to calm the desperate grandmother, as together they walked through the paces of performing CPR on the two-year-old girl.

Right by McGowan’s side at the 911 center, and ready to jump in if necessary, was Dave’s trainer, veteran 911 operator Ray Delano.

Delano never had to say a word.

“David has a great voice,” Delano says. “He has a great calming technique.”

A stong voice that many baseball fans know well.

“I was the stadium announcer for the Baltimore Orioles up until I started here,” McGowan says.

For 14 seasons, Dave McGowan was the voice of Camden Yards and the Baltimore Orioles. He retired from baseball in January and says he looked for a job where he could help people.

It looks like he found one, but he probably never thought he would actually save a life.

“She said the baby is breathing and I felt great and I said, ‘You know what? I made the right career choice,’” McGowan says.

Read the story here.

Des Moines police Officer David Murillo is running against four other candidates for the Republican nomination for sheriff to replace Jim Lee.

Murillo said the 911 response to a woman frantically looking for help for her 4-year-old son shows why dispatcher training should be an issue in the campaign.

“911 what’s the address of your emergency?” asks the dispatcher.

“5013 Lakewood Drive, Norwalk,” said the woman.

“OK, you’ve reached West Des Moines, stay on the line I need to transfer you to Norwalk,” said the dispatcher.

“What’s the problem there?” asked the next dispatcher.

“My four year old has been sick all day and he’s unresponsive and he’s not responding to us,” said the woman.

“Is he breathing?” asks the dispatcher.

“What?” said the woman.

“Is he breathing? Is he breathing?,” said the dispatcher.

“Yes, yes, he’s not responding to anything. We’re in the shower and,” said the woman.

“OK what is your name?” said the dispatcher.

“Melissa,” said the woman.

“Alright Melissa, we’ll get you some help down there OK,” said the dispatcher.

“Thank you,” said the woman.

“You’re welcome, bye,” said the dispatcher.

Murillo said the call ended without the dispatcher providing additional assistance.

“As a candidate for sheriff that’s not good enough for me and it shouldn’t be good enough for anybody that resides in Warren County,” said Murillo.

Murillo said the first dispatcher from West Des Moines continued to listen to the call and called the woman back.

“Ma’am this is the West Des Moines Fire and EMS, what’s your name?” asks the West Des Moines dispatcher.

“Melissa,” answers the woman.

“OK, Melissa I’m going to give you some instructions until Norwalk EMS gets there OK,” said the dispatcher. “Lay him flat on his back on the ground, and remove any pillows. Yup. and remove any pillows.”

“I want that dispatcher to stay on the line and give medical care and attention until the squad, the ambulance shows up,” said Murillo. “It’s not the fault of the dispatchers. They’re not getting the training they need and to me as a Warren County resident. That’s simply not good enough for my family.”

KCCI attempted to contact Warren County Sheriff Jim Lee several times Wednesday, but our calls were not returned.

Lee is retiring after 30 years.

Seven people are running to replace him: Preston Gebhart, Eric Haworth, Steve Spain and Stephen Stark, Dave Murillo, Brian Vos and Rick Champ.

The primary on June 5 will narrow the field to one Republican and one Democratic candidate.

Read the story here.

GAINESVILLE, FL — It seems to be more important now than ever before to be aware of stroke prevention. We are in the middle of Stroke Awareness Month, a time that our nation has dedicated to raising stroke prevention awareness.

According to information from the stroke.org website, up to 80 percent of all strokes are preventable. I find this to be an encouraging statistic. But it can only be so if we take advantage of the month to both teach others and to practice preventive methods ourselves.

Netwellness.org reports that strokes are the nation’s third leading killer and the leading cause of adult disability. The ailment strikes as many as 700,000 Americans a year, killing over 200,000 and permanently impairing hundreds of thousands more.

Perhaps knowing what a stroke does to the brain will increase the urgency for greater participation in prevention. Netwellness.org refers to a stroke as a “brain attack.” The term is frequently used by health professionals to identify what happens when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted. This can happen, according to this site, because a blood vessel has been ruptured or is blocked, which means the brain tissue beyond the blockage dies from a lack of blood.

During an attack, bodily functions controlled by the part of the brain where the blockage has occurred are lost and therefore unable to function. Therefore, the person suffering a brain attack may experience paralysis, memory loss or loss of speech.

The negative impact a “brain attack” has on all members of our population is quite significant, but its effect on African Americans is significantly more devastating. In any given year, 100,000 African Americans will have a stroke, the third leading cause of death for African Americans.

Because researchers list the occurrence of high blood pressure as high as 40 percent among African Americans and attribute its occurrence as a risk factor for stroke, finding ways to control or prevent strokes is a good place to start.

This, of course, is another opportunity to look at your diet. Does it contain more carbohydrates than it does green vegetables, fruit and fiber?

Don’t forget that, along with a healthy diet, comes exercise. Strengthening the heart muscle through cardiovascular activities will lower the possibility of a clot, which might be formed in the heart and travel to the brain.

Health experts contend that the use of tobacco products doubles the risk of having a stroke. There are several programs in our area that offer help with stopping the use of tobacco. The “Smoke Cessation” program at the Alachua County Health Department may be the answer you are seeking.

Diabetes is another risk factor. Weight gain and a lack of exercise are related to this disease condition as well. Taking care of your diabetes by following your prescribed plan of action is one way to reduce your risk.

The use of alcohol has been listed as another risk factor. Generally, the recommendation is that it is best not to drink at all, but if you do decide to drink you should set limits as to what is safe by talking with your health care provider.

Next to consider is the impact of family history on the potential to have a stroke. Everydayhealth.com suggests that if a close relative, like a parent, grandparent or sibling, has had a stroke, the risk of having one increases.

The concept of a “brain attack” is designed to alert us all to the fact that this condition is an emergency that requires the same urgency as a heart attack. If you or the person you are with have any of the symptoms below, you should call 9-1-1 immediately. They are:

• SUDDEN numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• SUDDEN confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
• SUDDEN trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• SUDDEN trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
• SUDDEN severe headache with no known cause.

In order to remember how to respond to someone who you suspect is having a stroke, the recommendation from stroke.org is that you remember the word F-A-S-T:

• F is for face: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the mouth drop?
• A is for arm: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
• S is for speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is the speech slurred or strange?
• T is for time: If you observe any of these signs, call 9-1-1 immediately.

With new medications that are effective if they are given within the first three hours following the first symptom or symptoms, it is extremely important that we follow the FAST plan of action.

Read the story here.

It’s a situation a local mother found herself in not too long ago and if it weren’t for her little girl, she might not be around to tell the story.

“I still get teared-up about it because she saved my life,” Kendra Brown of Holt said. “I honestly don’t know where I would be because the officers said I was having troubles breathing.”

Brown’s daughter, Emma, is a bundle of energy. Like most four-year-olds, play is a priority. She loves swings, slides and her mother’s cell phone.

But no one knew that very phone would save another thing she loves, her mom.

Last November, Kendra was home alone with Emma, when she collapsed with an adrenaline seizure. Emma didn’t see her mom fall but worried when she couldn’t find her.

“I looked inside, I looked everywhere,” Emma said.

She found Kendra lying facedown in the basement, so Emma took action. She dug into her mom’s pocket, grabbed her cell phone and dialed for help.

“I pressed red and then I pressed green,” she explained.

East Lansing dispatcher Rebecca Nelson was on the other side.

“She was very calm, she stayed calm through the whole thing,” Nelson said.

In her ten year career, Nelson says Emma is the youngest caller she’s ever had with a real emergency.

During the 11 minute call, the four-year-old asked for Meridian Township Officer Charles Glumb by name. Glumb is a family friend.

Nelson kept Emma talking, trying to figure out where she was and what was wrong with her mom.

“Can I talk to her,” Nelson asked in the 911 recording.

“She’s not waking up,” Emma responded. “I, I need some help here,” she added.

“Yup, I’m going to get you that help,” Nelson replied. “What’s your last name Emma?”

You can hear Emma following Nelson’s lead throughout the conversation. She helps first responders determine out her home address, but Emma’s worry for her mother was growing.

“She’s all alone and I’m scared,” Emma says on the 911 tape.

“It’s okay, don’t be scared Emma, I’m right here,” Nelson responded.

Emma starts to cry. “She fell on the floor, she’s not waking up,” Emma said.

Kendra was unconcious when firefighters, medics and Officer Glumb arrived, but soon she was breathing again, thanks in no small part to a pint-sized hero.

“Emma went upstairs to unlock the door, to let the police and fire in, Emma kept talking to the dispatcher until we got there,” Glumb said.

“She did a good job just staying on the phone and really more than anything that’s what we want, is to keep that open line for the updates as we use our other resources to find out where she’s at,” Nelson added.

Glumb was so impressed he nominated Emma for a citizen’s award for lifesaving.

“No one told her to do it, I felt she was a very brave, couragous girl,” he said.

Kendra has now heard the 911 call. She says it was tough to listen to, but she couldn’t be more proud.

“I heard her start to get scared and that just broke my heart,” Kendra said. “But I have an amazing, strong four-year-old.”

Kendra says she has talked with Emma about 911 and emergencies, but never imagined she’d need those skills so soon.

Dispatchers say Emma’s story is a great reminder about the importance of being prepared for emergencies. They want you to talk with your children about 911 early on, including what it’s for and how to use it.

They also recommend practicing those calls.

Nelson says you should make sure your children know your full name, first and last, as well as your complete address.

“God gave her to me for a reason,” Kendra said, of Emma.

In a tale come full circle, a mother who lives for her children, now owes her life to her child.

Read the story here.

When they arrived, Marks, 56, was sitting calmly in a wheelchair just outside the entrance. His complaint: he was having joint pain from gout and wanted his medication refilled.

“I can’t walk,” he said. “I need to go to the closest emergency room.”

The paramedics checked his vital signs. Marks told them he called 911 after the county clinic wouldn’t see him for free because he had other insurance. Then the paramedics did what Marks wanted — sent him by ambulance to St. Francis Medical Center.

During an eight-hour period at L.A. County Fire Station 41 last week, paramedics responded to a handful of calls but only one actual emergency — a man who reportedly had a seizure while driving on the 105 Freeway. Several other calls, they said, could have been handled differently if there were other options. The call from Marks was one.

“Really, what are we going to do for gout?” Capt. Ernie Clayton asked.

The incident illustrates a chronic problem — unnecessary 911 calls that result in costly trips to already crowded ERs, which divert resources from true emergencies. Increasingly, uninsured patients rely on 911 as their only way into the healthcare system.

Now, four decades after public safety agencies began launching fast-response paramedics, counties around the nation are overhauling the 911 system to save money, improve care and reduce ER overcrowding, an especially acute problem in the Los Angeles area. Federal health reform is driving the changes, as hospitals try to reduce readmissions and the healthcare system prepares for more patients.

In San Francisco and San Diego, paramedics have worked with law enforcement to reduce the burden of alcoholics on the 911 system. Paramedics in Maine, Minnesota and Colorado are beginning to treat patients in their homes, doing preventive and follow-up care and helping manage chronic illnesses.

“The emergency room is expensive and not always a pleasant experience for patients,” said Maine’s community paramedicine coordinator, Kevin McGinnis. “It is much better to treat them where they are.”

Although the discussions in Los Angeles County are just beginning, officials said they hoped to make changes to the 911 system in the next few years. This is the perfect time, they said, because there is federal money available for new efforts to deliver better care in a more cost-effective way.

“People are calling 911 not because they are really, really sick or really, really injured. It’s because they have no other option,” said L.A. County Fire Department Chief Deputy Mike Metro. Fire departments cannot continue to add engines and paramedics to meet the need, he said. “We have to have the ability to make different decisions.”

Paramedics in L.A. County responded to 543,715 calls in 2010 — a little more than one call every minute. About one in five patients taken to the ER might have been better served elsewhere, according to Cathy Chidester, director of the county’s Emergency Medical Services Agency.

Under current emergency response rules, there is little flexibility. After receiving initial aid, 911 patients have only two choices — either go to the emergency room or stay behind. In L.A. County, more than three-quarters take the ambulance ride, which can cost up to $1,500, even when their complaints are as minor as a cough or a headache. By law, emergency rooms must take patients regardless of insurance status.

Officials are exploring whether ambulances could take certain 911 cases to clinics rather than hospitals. They are also exploring whether paramedics could treat some people at their homes and refer others to primary care doctors or advice lines. And they are considering mobile health vans in some cases.

“This is a skilled workforce,” said Mitch Katz, director of the county Department of Health Services. “Their basic choice is to transport a person to the emergency room or not. That is not a very nuanced choice.”

Katz said the goal is that all patients “go to the right place and the right time to see the right person.”

California officials also are looking for ways to make the process more efficient and expand the role of paramedics, said Howard Backer, director of the California Emergency Medical Services Authority. Paramedic teams — staffed to provide service 24 hours a day — are qualified to do several medical procedures, such as insert breathing tubes and conduct electrocardiograms.

With additional training, Backer said they could help fill the primary care gap in California. “There are EMS personnel everywhere,” he said. “It’s natural to look at how we can do the most with the resources we have.”

Changes won’t be easy. California law restricts where ambulances can take 911 patients, and insurance, private and public, reimburses only when they are transported to hospitals. Clinics also would need to have the right hours, staffing and expertise to take the patients.

Then there is the concern about errors in judgment. What happens if a patient is taken to a clinic but really needed to go to an ER? What if a 911 patient is treated at home but really needed to see a doctor?

“It all comes down to liability,” said Patrick Hanrahan, an L.A. County firefighter-paramedic. “We don’t want to be left on the hook.”

Hospital personnel already talk with paramedics in the field, so under a new system, nurses and doctors could help quickly determine the best place for a 911 patient to be treated, said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Assn. of Southern California.

“This is long overdue,” Lott said. “The communication is there, the technology is there, the expertise is there. There is no reason why this kind of triaging can’t be done effectively.”

Another problem is that paramedics and ambulances often get stuck with their patients waiting for ER beds to open; creating new protocols could make the process work more smoothly. “If you have ambulances waiting at the emergency room … the people who need the care are not getting it,” said Brian Bledsoe, who teaches emergency medicine in Nevada and has written several EMS textbooks.

At Station 41 in Willowbrook, paramedics said they have responded — with lights and sirens — to babies who wouldn’t stop crying, people who couldn’t sleep and alcoholics who drank too much. “In their eyes it’s an emergency,” Clayton said. “We know better. But once the call is made, we have to care for them.”

On the day Marks called from the urgent-care center, paramedics from a nearby station headed to a Watts motel for a call about a man with a gunshot wound. But the victim, Terrance Montgomery, said he was shot and had been treated nine days earlier. The motel owner said she called 911 because Montgomery owed her money and she wanted him off the property.

As he was loaded into the ambulance, Montgomery, who is uninsured, said he hadn’t seen a doctor since leaving the hospital the previous week. “This is going to be my follow-up,” he said.

Later in the afternoon, paramedics went to the home of 90-year-old Nathan Shands, who had been vomiting for a few days. His granddaughter said she couldn’t get him into the car, so she called 911 to take him to the hospital. She hadn’t expected so many people to show up.

“She just wanted transport to the hospital,” Clayton said. “She didn’t understand 911 response.”

Read the story here.

Marian Andrzejewski, 74, called 911 after two men broke into his Ottawa apartment in October 2010, robbed him and punched him repeatedly.

But instead of getting help, Andrzejewski was scolded by the dispatcher when he struggled to communicate in broken English and ended up in handcuffs himself when police finally arrived.

In a recording of the 911 call, the dispatcher is heard telling Andrzejewski, who fled his native Poland after the Nazi occupation, that she could not understand him.

Nervous and fumbling for words, Andrzejewski says “yes” several times throughout the call.

At one point the dispatcher says: “Quit saying yes. Stop it . . . No, no more yes.”

When police officers arrived at the apartment building, the mother of one of Andrzejewski’s attackers approached them and accused the senior of sexually assaulting her.

“The police accepted their stories as to what happened and my client was charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement,” Andrzejewski’s lawyer James Harbic told CTV Ottawa.

Harbic said he doesn’t understand why police seemed to believe his client’s accuser, who has a criminal record.

Because he had no family or friends in town who could bail him out, Andrzejewski spent 75 days in jail. A jury recently acquitted him of all charges.

Ottawa police now say they have launched a full review of Andrzejewski’s 911 call.

“On initial review of that call, listening to it I do have some issues on the way that call was handled,” Supt. Mike Flanagan said.

“I thought the 911 operator was very inappropriate,” Harbic said. “Actually it was quite horrible.”

He also questioned why the dispatcher did not use a readily available translation service to make sense of his client’s frantic pleas for help.

Andrzejewski said he is relieved to be cleared of any wrongdoing and is glad to have his life back.

“I’m very happy,” he said.