Parents came home to their teenage son drowned in the hot tub. He was epileptic and he had had a seizure and drowned. I’ll never forget hearing them and his sister cry while they waited for first responders to arrive.
This sort of notion has always been trippy to me. This man’s brain (the _real_ central consciousness) is perfectly alive and healthy. And would go on continuing to be. And even when bodily injured in that moment the brain remains alive and healthy.
And yet, the brain goes on to die as a consequence.
I think I find it morbidity fascinating how the brain can be alive and well, but die as a result of something else. And the brain will in those final moments be aware of its demise.
I suppose the fact that if we had the technology to remove a brain and keep it alive then this man would not have died is sort of a tragic loss.
I don’t know how to explain the feelings I have on this. They are complex.
I will never forget hearing those traumatized wails of primal, guttural anguish.
I had never felt what it was like to experience having the wind knocked out of me before, until I heard the sounds those parents made when they found their child dead.
I used to be an L&D nurse. Had a patient whose BP spiked toward the end of labor, so we ended up doing a magnesium bolus, then almost immediately she transitioned, but really struggled to push past crowning, so the baby was stuck for about 2 minutes. Between the heavy magnesium and the extended crowning time, that baby came out super floppy and stunned, and we needed to bag him for a bit. The father saw us doing that and let out this terrible guttural scream.
I ended up with every single coworker in my room trying to calm him down. One of my colleagues said the only time she'd ever heard a scream like that before was the one delivery she was in where the mother died from an amniotic fluid embolism (an extremely sudden death). But truly the baby was fine and just needed a bit of extra support to adapt to breathing on his own.
I'm a mom, this sub just gets suggested to me sometimes. I just wanted to comment about that sound. We lost our first two babies at 22 weeks, and my husband made that sound when our son was born. He waved his arms and legs around before he died. I hope to never hear that sound again (or make it myself).
I'm sure it's more of the sound my high school best friend made when her mom told her that her other high school best friend - who she had only reconnected with that day - died in the car accident she was in after leaving my high school best friend's house.
That was a heart-wrenching sound. I still remember it, and it can still bring me to tears 24 years later.
I took a call where this woman called and sounded annoyed that she has to call at all. She said there was a man on fire walking around behind her house. This lady was almost hostile as I asked about his whereabouts etc. A few minutes later the Fire dispatcher told me that the FD got on the scene and found no fire. They started walking around and saw bits of burned clothes on the ground. They followed the trail and found an older gentleman that set a bonfire and had fallen into it. He was still alive. I thought the person who called was mentally ill. Her behavior didn’t match the situation.
It was just bizarre! The part I always found interesting was that she was the only person that called. I don’t know how serious the burns were but she got help to him when no one else (including himself) did.
She may have been upset because she had warned her neighbors that the man was a danger to himself, and no one listened to her. That, mixed with shock, makes sense to me. But honest to god, who knows. The public is crazy.
I’m not sure if you’re kidding or not, but they’re mine too. It can be easier to get details out of someone irritated and/or disinterested than it is from a panicking family member/friend (as morbid as that sounds). I worked briefly as an emt to meet a prerequisite for med school. Unaffiliated bystanders can add clear context that’ll save a patient long enough to get them to proper help.
I took a call from a mother, who'd recieved a call from the father just saying her son was dead. I got the address and called the father. They were in the middle of nowhere. His 5 year old had rolled a quad bike with no helmet. I talked him through CPR for 45 mins (whilst muting the phone and sobbing as I could hear the brother screaming in the background - what and how he was screaming I'll never forget). He was never going to survive.
Anyone in Australia, may recognise some of the following names of cases I was involved in - Darcy (West gate Bridge), Farquarson (his 3 boys into the dam), and the first Bourke St rampage. 💔
Quads are so deadly, we used to not wear helmets when growing up but after my dad was in an accident and had to be airlifted out of the desert with his jaw broken in 8 places, a complete dislocated shoulder and a shattered wrist, the first thing we did is get helmets. Which was very lucky because after that every single person in my immediate family ended up getting in an accident, including me. A huge part of the helmet was chipped off and it makes me cringe to think of what would have happened if I didn't have my helmet.
Back when I was a volunteer FF/EMT, got a call about a guy who wrecked while mountain biking in a park. We toned out neighboring FD to assis(large park). We split up into teams and searched down all the trails. My team found him sitting on the ground, helmet next to him. Helmet was crushed on one side, his head was bloody on that side. He apparently took a spill, striking helmet on a large rock. If it wasn't for that helmet taking the brunt of the damage, he probably would have died.
I had a buddy who was drunk on a quad ran into his 18 year old son (also on a quad). Guy flew over his handlebars and hit his jaw on his son's shoulder. Broken jaw in 4 places.
Another drunk buddy had one roll on top of him after attempting an extremely steep incline. Completely smashed his face. In the hospital for weeks with zero health insurance.
Neither had a helmet. I never been on one since and don't hang out with drunk idiots anymore.
I remember there was a story in the DFW area of a woman riding over a curb (at home) on a quad, it flipped and killed her. Low speed, just going over the curb. I think it was 2019/pre covid 2020.
EDIT TO ADD: Here's the link https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2020/03/28/arlington-police-investigating-atv-crash-that-killed-20-year-old-woman/?outputType=amp
The first time I really learned about death was in 4th grade. A classmate rolled his quad over and we never saw him again after that weekend. That’s when I realized death was permanent. I think about him and wonder how his family is doing every once in a while. And make a point to visit his memorial when I’m at the community center (previously the elementary school).
My biological brother has a permanent indent in his chest from a quad accident. How he survived we’ll never know. He was joyriding in our neighborhood, hit a bump going a bit too fast, and rolled. Entire steering wheel went directly against his chest, it was on top of him when it all ended. Only got a broken arm. The indent in his chest made us think he had to have *some* kind of internal damage. He was fully coherent, laughing about the whole thing, and had to be forced to by all of us to go to the ER. Literally *tried to drive himself* when he gave in, but instead my grama took him. Perfectly fine. I’ll never understand what kind of luck this idiot had to survive that crash, let alone walk away with just a broken arm.
An elderly woman called, hysterically screaming. Her elderly husband with dementia had wandered outside while she wasn't supervising him and he stumbled down a small cliff, hit his head and was dying as she called. He wasn't close enough for her to reach, but she could see him and I could hear him through the phone. It was devastating to hear her crying about how she'd told him not to walk out front without her and she couldn't believe he was going this way after they'd spent so many years together. It messed me up for a bit.
> after they spent so many years together
As I grow older in age this concept carries more weight. As you experience more time you realize the value of those memories and experiences and the cost of losing them (or those people).
I got that call that no parent wants to get. My 6 year old daughter had drowned in a duck pond on her grandparents farm. She and a friend were outside playing, both fell in. The friend managed to get out, but my daughter got tangled in a patch of weeds under the water and they weren't able to get her out for 45 minutes.
Almost 40 years later and it still hurts.
edit: Thank you all for your kind words. There are just a few days of the year now that are really hard. This pain is not something I would wish on my worst enemy.
Wow, this has always been my worst fear. Seeing your address pop up in the CAD.
Sorry for your loss, I can't imagine what it feels like. I had a call once for a sudden infant death syndrome on a child that was the exact same age as my daughter at the time, and this whole time, I was thinking this could be her. It was a routine call but for me it was the hardest in my career.
I probably would never have worked in a 911 center again if it actually was my child.
Delirious old man covered himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire. I work fire and ems. When the wife called, she was so hard to make out, took me 45 seconds to realize a person was on fire. He got the fire out and was okay. At the end of the call, they were arguing. He was trying to grab car keys to go grocery shopping.
I had a call where a man doused his wife in gasoline while she was in the shower and then set her ablaze. I heard her scream to death, wasn’t long at all. He instantly regretted his decision it seemed. People are fucked up.
True. The monk who self-immolated in 1963 in Vietnam, Thích Quảng Đức, was entirely quiet as his flesh burned. A reporter present wrote, “Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think ... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him."
Thích Quảng Đức was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by, Diệm, the leader of Vietnam at the time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thích_Quảng_Đức
When I was like 7, my brothers childhood best friend's dad did this. From what I was told, the neighbor was trying to get his hose to put out the fire but either didn't get there on time or the dad told him no. I'm pretty sure the funeral was the last time we ever saw that kid.
Not my call but I listened to it. Originally believed to be a family disturbance. Upgraded to a burg I/P when a man with an axe tried to break into the house. Man knew the family that lived here, murdered the mom, dad, and possibly one or two of the kids. The 3rd kid escaped out a window and called 911 from the neighbors house. I’ve never heard panic and hysteria like that. Entire department goes code, med stages. Upon first officer’s arrival, mom was found outside on the sidewalk and so heavily beaten he couldn’t identify if she was male or female. “I have a body down” were his words.
Suspect escapes in a vehicle and finds himself directly in front of a cop while his vehicles description is being aired. Traffic stop initiated and he takes off about 130 down the hwy. They chase him for a little when, I think, he had a soft wipeout and bailed on foot. Perimeter set. K9 deployed sniffs the veh and takes off into the brush, followed by a loud yelling (suspect). Cops swarmed this guy and may or may not have “helped him to the ground” a few times. They threw the book at him but I think there was a chance his case was only going to get him a set amount of years instead of life or the chair, can’t remember. Either way he’s in a super max rn.
Edit: My memory has failed me. The mother was the only fatality, she was struck with a machete several times and then the suspect ran her over with his car twice. Her husband suffered a non lethal strike to the back of the head, and her daughter lost part of a finger.
I was listening in on a call while training. Wife had found her husband hung in a closet. The deceased had the same first and last name as me. Spelled the same and everything. Fucked me up for a couple days. I emailed the detective working the case the next day about calling someone back and he freaked out thinking the dead guy emailed him. I can laugh about it all now but damn hearing I was hanging in a closet was messed up.
I have the exact same name as a woman who was killed and her murder unsolved for many years. It’s on Forensic files. It’s even weirder because we were both nurses. Same name ANd profession!
I feel this. I got a letter from a funeral home with my dad's name on it once.. almost made me stop and think as much as when I found the old letter from our elementary school janitor that hung himself in the closet.. he was a really good guy that a lot of the students looked up to
Worst on duty as a firefighter is probably two friends that were racing on some back country roads - one BMW and one Porsche. Porsche was ahead, lost it on a corner and plowed the passenger side into a tree. Driver was OK. Then the BMW hit the same corner, lost it, and pancaked the Porsche against the tree with his buddy still inside. The car was maybe 2 feet thick after that - couldn't really see it behind/ inside the BMW.
Worst off duty was coming up on a head-on DUI crash vs a family in a minivan like 30 seconds after it happened. Pregnant mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and 2 kids. The crash sheared the driver side sliding door off the van and spun in. Grandma wasn't belted in and was ejected face first into a stone wall. There was nothing left of her face but a mess of flesh and bone fragments. I was told she lived two more days.
Worst as a dispatcher I can't talk about since court case is still pending/ in extradition process.
I feel ya. We had a pickup with 7 passengers hit a highway exit divider. Smashwd all the safety barrels to the concrete barrier. Two ejections doa. One partial ejection still alive but died. Four entrapments one was dead and we landed three life flights but one patient died waiting long extraction. Last two life flighted but one died. My engine sat on scene for hour waiting investigation and coroner. From where I sat on the wall I had doa in front, behind, and to the left.
Worst 911 call was trying to talk a guy down from suicide. I kept trying to talk him to letting me transfer him to a mental health provider but he refused. Then he said his wife was pulling up. A pause and rustling then a gun shot. I hear the wife scream from a loud noise scare, door opens, and then the grief moan\scream (worst noise in the world).
I worked in an area with a lot of UDA smuggling. One particular crash, I sent EIGHTEEN medevac helos. No joke, less than a mile from that one a week later, a fellow dispatcher put TWENTY THREE down for patients, each with multiple fatalities beyond the ones that were flown out. My cynicism started about that time when I realized how many resources were committed to those two incidents and they were becoming routine.
Holy fuck. idk why this sub even came up in my feed! The first time was yesterday, for another post that also only had 100 or so upvotes and nothing to do with where I normally hang out on Reddit. I didn’t even click into it!
Then just now I chose to click on this one to find out why Reddit wants me in here, and your comment is the first thing I see. It will live rent free in my head for years, I’m guessing. This is wtf I get for not minding my damn business ☹️
A man called in to say he'd stabbed a woman in the neck. Yes it was intentional. No he didn't know her. No he wasn't going to help stop the bleeding. He'd just been released from prison a few days earlier and didn't know what to do with his life now.
Active shooter call at a club in the city. Person who called was just screaming “He’s shooting people!! People are dying people are dying!!” and wouldn’t give me an address, and I couldn’t get a good reading on her location. As I’m trying to get the address, people are screaming in the background and gunshots are just rapid firing and she still isn’t telling me which club this is.
Not being able to get a location during that - it’s the worst feeling. It’s the most helpless I ever felt in my life. I quit 911 about a month later. I still have nightmares about the screaming and feeling like I’m stuck.
If it makes you feel any better, you may have been stuck with a caller that wasn’t very helpful, but odds are there was someone else in that crowd that also called 911 and provided more information. You did the best you could with what was given to you, but you definitely did not stop those people from receiving the help they needed.
Thank you 💕 I was the first call. Short staffed and no one to back me up when I couldn’t get what I needed. Felt like an eternity before that second call came in. I appreciate your comment.
I have a few:
Funniest call was when I had moved to morning shift 7am-7pm and I got a call that there was a rather large man in the park who was eating doughnuts and drinking coffee while being completely naked and giving himself a bit of attention.
Saddest call was my very first 911 call. A daughter called the admin line because her mother had gone to the military cemetery and committed suicide on her father's grave. The girl was about 14 and was in an absolute panic because her mother had sent her texts advising of what she was doing and for some reason decided to send pictures of her cutting her self to her daughter. The mother was dead when we got to her.
I've only had one subpoena in my time of dispatching but it was for a girl who called in advising her father had been sexually molesting her for years. It was a very strange experience because all the dispatchers I worked with had never been called into court (minus a few for high visibility crimes). I can remember the first time I saw her father and just feeling such an intense anger and then shock when they played the 911 tape. The daughter was 12 when she called and I just remember how defeated she looked. Her mother backed the father and once he was charged and the jury found him guilty the daughter ended up staying with other family members as the mother was...less than supportive.
Honest question: why would a 911 dispatcher need to be called into court? What more could you provide that is not in the call recording and dispatching records? Those are sad and messed up stories, btw.
I can't honestly answer the why portion. I had been in dispatch about 2 years at that point and my shift partner had been doing it for 10 years and had never heard of a dispatcher being summoned. Even my Sgt. was surprised.
They literally just played the call, asked me if that was me on the phone and mostly asked about the process I took. Then the defendants attorney asked me if I "heard any molestation occurring" and I simply responded "no... as we all heard on the call previously played, I only took the callers complaint and supplied the information to the officer to respond". Needless to say, I'm not sure why the prosecutor felt like the 911 dispatcher would hold any weight (not trying to diminish what we do, just like you said not sure what else I could've offered besides the call recording itself) or how it would help to have me physically be there.
Your guess is as good as mine lol.
Woman who has been kidnapped and held hostage for like five years by some guy. I thought she was crazy at first by the tone of her voice, but didn't narrate that information in the call because it'd of garnered a different response, guy had multiple assault rifles, AKs, home made explosives, drugs, swords, kevlar vests and plates etc. She was very calm about it all and gave great detail of where everything was, who he was, why he did it, what he drove, where he was going, names dobs, it was a LOT, and I thought it was just being made up, or a prank, or just something that wasn't what the call was being told to me it was. Turns out it was pretty much all true. It's the call that kinda made me reevaluate what people say and how receptive I am to believing them...unless they tell me someone lives inside their vagina. I've gotten that call too.
Yeah, my partner works with unhoused people and some of her clients have bad mental health. Some of them complain about bugs on them when they clearly don't have them, or that bad people are zapping them with energy. Then those same people complain that their new landlord won't get rid of cockroaches or that a neighbor is being a creep or whatever - and sometimes it's mental health and not real, but often it is real.
People act like there's crazy homeless people and normal people, but we all have our mental health problems and we all interact with the world enough to survive and understand enough about what's real.
This exactly. My schizophrenic uncle kept complaining of waking up to bugs all over him and them all over his apartment. We checked, but didn't see anything. Social services checked, but didn't see anything. Apartment management claimed they checked, but nothing was there. This went on for months and an increase in meds + psych services made no difference in him seeing "bugs everywhere". Everyone, family + professional, assumed he was just mentally ill.
My uncle committed suicide and left a note basically saying he couldn't live with this bug infestation that no one else seen and if that was what the rest of life meant living with schizophrenia, he was done.
Devastating was an understatement , but worse - upon investigation of his death, they found the apartment complex was INFESTED with bed bugs, the worst case my city ever saw. The apartment complex knew about it, but swept it under the carpet and did absolutely nothing to treat it ever. They ended up getting their property taken from them, in fact they tore it down thank God, because it was for disabled housing...of all populations.
You can most definitely be mentally ill and correct at the same time. It's vital to give the benefit of doubt - might just save a life.
Small Knicks here and there. His psychologist said they were from skin picking, not bugs and having 0 history with bed bugs or schizophrenia, the family believed professional opinion unfortunately. Lots to learn from in hindsight.
I have BD type 1 and while having manic episodes I can experience psychosis and very rarely i will get tactile hallucinations. I’m normally a well adjusted person all things considered. I got manic while I had covid and felt like my teeth were moving in my head. My partner was away and had to talk me down from removing my teeth with pliers. Even now, years later I wake up in a cold sweat worried about my own mind betraying me.
A man hung himself in the garage and his two teenage sons found him. (16, 19) I walked them through cutting him down and starting CPR.
He had a pulse, but died at the hospital. He was a single parent and had some major financial difficulties. Those poor boys were so brave to work so hard to save their dad. I feel so bad for them.
It really broke my heart. My kids are preteens now, and I didn't co sleep in general, but practically every exhausted new mom has fallen asleep with the baby on accident. I was lucky, but this young lady was not.
Thank you to everyone in this particular comment chain about call like this. As a father of 6 I couldn’t imagine being called by anyone in this situation and have to absorb their unbelievable wave of despair.
I took this call, except he was 5mo. The whole time she was doing compressions, I could hear her toddler making worried noises in the background and she kept saying to wait, that she was busy helping brother. The words I'll never, ever forget, though, were when she told me, "he was just starting to smile."
She was picked up the next night for a (failed) suicide attempt by overdose.
I cannot imagine the absolutely surreal amount agony you have to cover up in order to function as a responder to an incident like this. Thank you for being there to do what you could because that’s an atmosphere I don’t think I’d wish on my own worse enemy. I haven’t the highest respect for you and others who could handle situations like this.
I took a call from a woman who came home from her job as an ER nurse to find that her husband had accidentally smothered their 2mo son when he rolled over on him on the couch. She was so calm and repeatedly told me that her son was gone and beyond any help. Later, when one of my deputies keyed up on the radio, I heard what I thought was Mom wailing. When we did our CISM briefing, I learned it was Dad. Gut-wrenching.
Edit: child's age changed from years to months
Its always the suicides that plague me after. One call a man called in stated he was going to shoot him self in the middle of the bar and from witness accounts and what was heard he did exactly that. Traumatized the poor bartender all you could here were screams.
Why do people do that? You want to kill yourself, that's one thing, but why cause a scene and traumatize others for no reason? What did those strangers do to him?
We had a kid decide to take a dive off of one of the upper floor balconies in a high rise dorm at 11am on a beautiful, sunny Saturday. Tons of other students outside enjoying the day at that time had their lives changed in a matter of seconds. Suicide contagion ran its course over the next several weeks.
My guess is they feel unseen and unimportant, and it's a last ditch attempt to be seen/acknowledged. They may not even want to die but are so desperate to not suffer any more that they're willing to die if needed... but doing it someplace public still might give others a chance to help if they want to. I do also think reasons are very complex, and there's no single answer. I don't think narcissism is the reason in even most of those cases though.
Not mine, but one I used to use in training for others:
Dispatcher gets a call from her husband on 911. Their sons were driving the riding lawnmower, and rolled it over, and it landed on one of her sons, partially disemboweled him. She took that call like a professional and got help going.... And then kept working. Her town had had a robbery at the same time and no crews were available to come in and relieve her. I guess it took a while for them to find someone who could come in and take over so that she could go to the hospital. I've done this job a long time. I don't know if I could have kept working. She did it with less than a year on the job.
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18644973
I have to drop a reply for anyone who is worried like I was. The article subheading says the child was "fatally hurt," but further on it states that he survived and has a brief interview with him.
Yeah, that was shocking to me that it wasn't mentioned by OP. I'm always amazed by dumb things like that - sure he had an injury that could've been fatal but if you survive then it's not "fatally hurt"
That little boy is 26 now, if I did the math correctly. I wonder how he’s doing now. I can’t imagine what the mom was going through not being able to leave and go to her son. I couldn’t do it
I saw a go fund me for an electric bike for him a few years ago. I think it said he can't drive due to medications and he didn't have the strength for a normal bike, but it sounded like he's doing pretty well considering the severity of his injuries. I am amazed his mom kept working. Id be tempted to just quit and leave
From the victim's family, Thanks for all you do.
My daughter was driving home on a major roadway. Unfortunately a drunk wrong way driver was also on the road that night. Worse case scenario a head on happened, my daughter was killed instantly.
7 months later meeting with the DA we found out the drunk driver had gone 8 miles in the wrong direction before the wreck. We were able to listen to the 911 calls regarding the wrong way driver. The young lady on 911 /dispatch was amazing, she was calling out every interchamge, lane movement and speed that was reported by callers. State Patrol was chasing and trying to block the SUV but unfortunately she killed my daughter before they caught up.
I was so impressed by the manor of which the dispatcher handled the call, semi frantic but still composed, I asked to meet her. She was one year on the job and just off probationary period.
While we lost my daughter that night, the efforts of that dispatcher will never be forgotten.
For those of you who do answer the calls, they won't always turn out well but we appreciate you.
Not a 911 call but when I worked in OR recovery, I took care of 12 year old boy who was small for his age. He had refused to stop playing video games when his mom told him to. She got angry, took a kitchen knife and cut off 4 of his fingers. We were able to reattach two.
I wonder who called 911. Was it his mother? Sibling? Father? Was there someone else there who had to watch helplessly? My heart still aches for that boy.
Lmao "the ambulance is parked near my window, it's making noise I can't sleep" Well then why don't you walk up to the paramedics and tell them how you feel yourself instead?
Patient in apartment building decides to commit suicide.
Sits in bathtub, letting the water run and slits both his wrists. Patient dies but the tub eventually overflows from the still running water.
Downstairs neighbor calls 911 because his ceiling is leaking bloody water.
In almost 2 decades of dispatch It's definitely not the worst call but it's definitely the one that looked the most like it was out of a horror film
I took a call for a 3 year old that had been found in a pool, drowned. I was walking mom through CPR instructions but the mom’s mom said she is a nurse and was in the background already doing it. I’ll never forget hearing her tell my caller “she’s gone sweetie.” Oof. I had to go take a walk after that one.
It’s a small community so I went to a get together they had after her funeral and told them who I was. They were extremely grateful but it was still extremely sad.
you never know. I hope the kiddo was transported to the ED and they vigorously worked to revive her. kids can do surprisingly well after a drowning. sucks it didn't help this time.
(Funny) I had a 6 yo who was playing on 911 ask me if I had kids, I said no, she asked if I was positive, I said yes, then she dropped “you better not be lying to me, cause liars go to hell when they die” on me 😂
The poor mom (who had no idea) was extremely caught off guard when three deputies from a different county (the call pinged in my county but it was just over the county line, really weird situation) pulled up to her house to see what was up lol
My first 911 call ever was from a hysterical man, he was transferred to me from another town. He was on the highway, but his 14 year old son was home and reported he could not wake his mother up. I instructed dad to have his son call me directly.
While I spoke to the son, I asked him a myriad of questions, but it was clear his mom was too far gone. Cold, stiff, etc. I asked him to step out of the room and hang on the phone with me until I got help there. Medics called TOD shortly after their arrival.
The mom wasn’t feeling well when her son and dad left in the morning, and she stated she just wanted to sleep in. He came home from school to find her that way. Not sure what happened, but no suspected OD/suicide etc.
The sobbing of that poor teenager, and his screams saying “mom! Mom no! I love you please answer me!” were absolutely heart breaking.
a local known nutjob was always causing shit in town 😭
i got a non-emergency call saying their neighbor was naked in the front lawn in a "T pose" and just standing there.
the officer got there and she trying to open his door..once he verified there was infact a naked lady he called for backup and 2 other officers showed up.
she said that a snake crawled up her coochie and laid the antichrist in her stomach and the only way to get it out is to not sin and to repent, but she smoked weed so she crucified herself in her front yard but god forgave her and sent 2 men and a woman to save her and have sex with her to replace the anti christ in her tummy by breaking the snake egg.
she called the next day and apologized and figured out that her drug dealer put a curse on her because she hasnt paid him in a few weeks and he keeps calling her.
so now she keeps hearing a click in her head that drove her crazy making her crucify herself but she needed an officer to remove the curse by snapping a stick just above her head.
our female office obliged the request and went out there.. she broke a stick over her head and said the passphrase and she was cured apparently.
Took a call from a guy coming down an on-ramp onto the expressway, dark and in the rain, when a random woman ran across on foot and he struck her.
Call started with him getting out of his car. He ran up and was doing the best he could to try and tell me how she was doing. Based on what he told me, and what I could hear over the phone, she was not going to make it. He asked about CPR, and I had to explain that with that kind of traumatic injury, CPR isn't an option.
He was quiet for a few moments, and then said "I took my coat and shirt and covered her up, she looks cold"
That man died inside that night.And his pain punched right through the phone and ripped me apart. Nothing I could have said to him would have stopped him from blaming himself.
I left the profession shortly after that. My center was a pretty active area, and I'd heard some awful stuff. But that one broke me in a way I wasn't ready for.
Man hung himself in the basement , his wife found him. ( call I took yesterday ). Telling her how to cut him down and do cpr was intense. You can never forgot screams like that. She was so brave.
I had to step off the floor for a minute
Not a call but when I was in Iraq a bomber walked into a Group of my fellow service men who were handing out chocolates and toys to a group of school kids. I turned around just as he let go of the trigger. I'll save you any description as it still is extremely vivid in my mind and to this day brings me to the edge of my mental breaking point. Only 2 survived one GI lost his legs and most of his right arm, and one of the kids who miraculously only had a slight contusion to her head. 13 lives snuffed out right infront of me and nothing I could do to stop it. I struggle everyday with that one. I went on to do 2 more tours and that day was the fucking worst.
I read something similar on a Reddit thread about a guy in Afghanistan and how his superior told him you don’t trust the village kids no matter what.
A little girl was walking towards them and his superior told him to shoot her. He kept hesitating. She was crying and peeing herself. I think the superior jumped in and shot her, and then the bomb went off. Someone forced her to wear this bomb to try and kill the solders. I felt so horrible for that little girl.
I didn't take this call, it was one I heard while in the academy for training. A five year old called 911 to say that his mom wouldn't wake up. That child was calmer than most adults would have been. This was before enhanced 911, so they had to ask for an address. Not only did he know his address, but he was able to give landmarks in the area (it was a rural area). The dispatcher kept asking questions and he'd answer. He said he woke up and was worried because mommy usually came and woke him up. That's why he went looking for her. The part that was heartbreaking was when he said that she was really cold so he got his blanket to cover her up. He asked the dispatcher if that was okay. Almost everyone in the class was crying at that. He was alone in the house, his father was traveling for work. Police/fire/rescue got there fairly quickly. She was DOA. I heard this call back in 1988, it still sticks with me.
I have a lot of bad calls so it’s hard to say the worst. For me, the scariest was a kidnapping in progress. Adult woman stalked and kidnapped by her ex and thrown in the trunk with a shovel and other tools to kill and bury her. I was terrified because I did not want a Denise Amber Lee situation.
He punched her in the head before throwing her in the trunk. I got the call while she was in the trunk and she had no idea where she was, what kind of car, etc. It was hard to hear her because she was whispering in the trunk while the car was in motion on a shitty dirt road. She would only answer yes or no questions.
This was before rapid sos, so I had to rely on phs1 and phs2 rebids. They were out in the desert so the location kept flipping from the tower to the phone back to the tower.
By using her phone number to search cad history for previous calls we quickly figured out who she is and who he is and the possible vehicle information. Thank the lord that this man was fucking stupid and decided he was going to bury her on his family’s ranch and not unknown desert. One of the officers was familiar with this guy and had chased him the same way as the location updates on a previous DV call for the couple and remembered that the guy had a family ranch out that way so most units headed there. Thankfully the suspect was not speeding, but taking a leisurely country drive. The officers were able to catch up and box him in at the gate of the ranch. It ended up in a shootout, with the victim still in the trunk, all while on the phone with me. I stayed with her until the officers opened the trunk.
My second scariest was an insane situation where a grandma was shooting everyone in the house because she didn’t want to be moved into a care home. She had already shot someone and was going room to room to find my caller and shoot her. I had to work with my caller to help them decide if they wanted to fight and run or just hide. Caller got cornered while trying to find a place to hide and eventually had to go hands on with grandma. A small altercation with a few non-hitting rounds fired. Caller managed to get granny on the ground, kicked the gun away, and ran out the door.
I had an elderly male in one of our nursing homes call around 3-4am swearing he was drugged and dizzy and the pd got the call first and only called the facility to have someone check on him, when I got the call on the fire side he was verbally upset and distraught and I couldn’t find it in me not to at least send the ambulance company to just do a WBC on him. I know how the nursing homes around us are and it was either a cry for help or a cry for attention but I know if it was my loved one and I found out the cities departments responsible for being helpful didn’t send anyone just to check I’d be pretty upset plus if he wasn’t drugged (most likely not the case) and he was feeling ill and something happened to him that would be on me and our sops require if we get the call we send someone no matter the case. He sounded helpless and scared and I was not going to leave him like that. I think any dispatcher in my shoes would have done the same. I thought about bringing it up to the higher ups but I didn’t want to make a case if the sops for the pd side only required them to contact the facility and who knows if he changed his story from calling them to calling me. This is just a call that stuck with me because I feel unsure about my decision regarding bringing that up to higher ups.
This thread popped up in my feed. I’m an RN. Sending someone to do a quick medical screening is the right call. Old people in sepsis sometimes only show increased confusion until they crash. And some nursing homes are better than others so you can’t always trust they will call before it’s a shit show.
I went through this with my mom. Nursing home wouldn't call ambulance. My sister called PD, they called facility and chose not to come. I called my mom and walked her through what to say to nurse for them to call ambulance. Ambulance came and told my sister to come in and get Mom's stuff because they wouldn't be bringing her back there. I'm still angry at PD. Mom died from sepsis as a result of infection that started in nursing home "care."
Thank you for running the call up the chain.
Prior PD here. Worth mentioning not all buildings like this allow us 24hr access so to your point, SOP might just be to alert the facility vs breaking something to get in, but I would always be happy to have someone like you highlighting the fact that the call gave you a particularly bad feeling and you wanted extra attention/efforts put on getting to that person. It isn't always obvious by the notes/radio traffic some of the small indicators you guys are picking up on. Nothing wrong with your choice to not push the issue up the chain, but always feel empowered to do so, your interpretation is very valuable.
Edit to add: If the cops you work with have an issue with that, they can pound sand
One of our lieutenants had 8-9 kids. His young daughter was wearing a scarf and slid down a stair railing in their home. The scarf got caught and she accidentally hung herself. I talked to her grandmother and I’ll never forget the way she spoke to me. And I’ll never forget every deputy in the county flying to the house because they recognized the address.
Oof. I almost hung myself when I was about 5 because I had the bright idea to tie my jump rope across my plastic slide handles and slide under it. Instead it caught me right around the neck and the only reason my mom found me in time was because our dog that was with me started barking incessantly
I was talking with an unhinged teenager that we already had a couple calls on earlier that night and was a frequent run away. She kept talking about how much she hated her mom and was going to kill her. I could hear her mom yelling occasionally in the background. The caller had a knife and every time I’d get her a little calm she would work herself back up and start yelling she was going to murder her mom. It felt like the officers took forever to get there too. I managed to get her outside of the house to wait for the officers. But the things she was saying she wanted to do to her mom had me believing she would do them if the officers didn’t get there in time. Like she was just sane enough to know she was psycho. I had just started training someone too who was listening to that call. My trainee learned what crazy was that day.
Call from a tow truck driver on scene of a traffic collision on the freeway in the rain, saying a responding officer who just arrived got hit by a passing car. Luckily, the caller was calm and knew the exact location, and fire was already enroute to that collision. Officer lived.
My first year by myself in my small county 911. Had a guy call to tell me he was going to kill himself because of his upcoming court date re SA against his daughter. I said what a young inexperienced kid would say, didn't work. He did it on the phone. Wasn't that traumatic though. Just a loud noise followed by a dead phone line. It took me years to realize he did it because he was guilty and that helped.
Grandparents calling to say their granddaughter seemed drunk. Stumbling, staring, etc. Turns out her mom had dogs in the house with fleas. This 4 yo had fleas in every orifice. Mom kept the dogs, lost custody of her 2nd kid.
Trauma/ICU nurse here. Officers said a woman had called 911 to report a woman screaming in the apartment above hers. When they arrived, a man covered in blood answered the door and told them, "She ain't gonna make it into work today!" with a big smile on his face. He had beaten his girlfriend nearly to death and gouged out her eyes with an electrical plug. Being newly blind, she was understandably terrified of every little sound.
One of my two youngest (middle schoolers at the time) contacted me via text that there was an active shooter on campus, the swat team was in the gymnasium where one of them was, and they couldn’t reach them. I begged the one texting me to NOT text their sibling for fear the phone vibrating or ringing would give away their hiding location. It was excruciating, and I could hear my ears ringing and my heartbeat swooshing. Time completely stopped. When one was finally able to call, the sound of their voice was the most hauntingly painful yet joyous and relieving sound I’d ever heard. Thank God the shooter was detained and no one was injured. It was traumatic and changed all of us.
Not a dispatcher but while working in an ER a large man ran by security with something in his arms. A nurse grabbed the thing and the man fled. The something was an 18 month old baby who had been shot through the head by her slightly older brother while the big guy (dad) was playing dice.
At first the baby was pretty stable but after a few minutes she brady’d down to the 40s and went from purposeful movement to generalized seizure. She had been looking at me when she became unstable and during her seizure her eyes were fixed on me (until I moved). The peds hospital sent an ambulance to our ED and while trying to transfer her to their stretcher, she crashed. Compressions were begun, she was already tubed but it took ~1.5 hours to get her stable for transfer less than 2 miles away.
She passed a few days later and her poor mother made the best choice, to have all her baby’s organs donated. Something like 6 kids were given a chance at a longer or better life.
I'm not a responder nor 911 operator, but sometimes I feel like I took the wrong direction even though I don't feel I could handle it. There's nearly a guarantee that I'll have to call 911 at least twice a year, and all for good reason. I've already had my two this year for driving by a house on fire, and an elderly woman driving the wrong way down the highway, nearly hitting me head on. I've had to call 911 at least twice a year, sometimes 4 times, every year since 2010 for what feels like every possible reason. I've seen people hang themself, have heart attacks, strokes, seizures. I've witnessed way too many car accidents, barn fires, house fires, field fires, people driving and not knowing their car was on fire. I've been the last phone call before suicides, and dated a man that ended up killing himself and the woman he married. I am cursed.
The worst thing to me was grocery shopping and trying to get to the Mac and cheese. An elderly man was standing and blocking me and I waited patiently for about 5 minutes. Finally, I just asked him to move and recognized that something was wrong. His face was hung on one side and he couldn't talk and barely move. I could see the terror in his face and I called for help and everyone around me ignored me. This was one of my earliest situations and I didn't even have my cell phone with me. I never found out if he was ok and I wish I had caught on earlier.
Some people say this is a blessing for what happens to me, but I can't feel that way. It's hard and I've never had any type of training. I just rely on people like you to tell me what to do. I don't think I could ever do your job. Thank you all for reading this and I appreciate all that everyone does. I sometimes wonder if a log is kept on how many times people had to call 911 and if I could break a Guinness record.
There are sometimes (in my county) some serious calls only have 1 caller, and sometimes they dont even call 911. There have been so many times that the 1 caller has saved someone's life. Better safe to call and make sure they have it than assume someone else has called when they haven't. So many people are scared to call 911 but we are just here to help. (EDITED grammar)
I learned a long time ago that someone died in public and nobody called 911 because they all thought someone else did. I have to call in just to be sure and I'm afraid I'll annoy you all. Luckily, there's only been one time where someone was rude and it was about an exhaust falling off a car and flew into a field, catching fire. "Well, do you have a fire extinguisher?" No ma'am. "How much on fire is it?" Well, right now it's only about 5-10 feet stretch but I bet it will be over 20 ft long in just a minute or two. Didn't even ask the location first. That was within the last 3 years. It spread pretty quick and the car who lost their exhaust never even stopped. I didn't even know things like that were possible. Ended up taking about 3 acres of the field.
Surprisingly, as someone who takes 911 calls, I've never had to call 911. I couldn't imagine having to get the courage to do so and being met with a rude operator.
I've had to call 911 a few times for very obviously drunk drivers on the road with me. More than once, the dispatcher has been rude about it, like this isn't really an emergency if he hasn't hit anyone or crashed yet. One even told me I should have just called the local Sherrif or police instead of jumping straight to 911.
There are digital message boards in my area that periodically have a notice to call 911 if you suspect a drunk driver. I've also been told before that that's the correct action to take. I don't know the number for any given police department for whatever area I happen to be driving through and, since I'm always driving at the time, I'm sure as hell not gonna try Googling the number while also trying to keep track of and avoid a drunk driver near me.
We were always taught in CPR/EMS/BLS/ACLS class thst it’s imperative to point at a specific person and say “you call 911” because most of the time people are in shock and just assume someone else will do it. There have been way too many lives lost while dozens of people watched because they all thought someone else would/was calling 911
I'm working on it. If I can help any other way, I'd love to. Luckily, I've never had to attempt cpr yet but with my path, I'm sure it will come up eventually.
One of the most unusual was the woman who called 911 to tell me something came through her windshield and that she couldn't move, but wouldn't look to tell me what it was. I had to keep talking to her and keep her mind occupied, because she kept wanting to hang up and call her husband. Eventually, I got a motor unit to her, and it hit the fan. She was rushed into emergency surgery to remove the rebar rod that impaled her chest and pinned her to the seat. It was absolutely life-saving surgery.
Funniest: two women were neighbors and having a dispute over street parking. One yells at the other that she needs to get laid. The first goes back in her house, grabs a giant dildo and slaps the neighbor in the face with it. Assault with a dildo.
i am not a dispatcher but i do imagine i was this call for somebody. the first time i ever moved out was with my ex into his house, and one day we got home and we were unloading some things from the car. after a couple minutes, the girl across the street ran out of the house with blood on her screaming at us to call the police and that her boyfriend was trying to kill himself. as she was out there, we heard the gunshot, i watched her run back in screaming. the ambulance arrived first but refused to go into the house until cops were on scene (at the time i was unaware that this is for their safety, so i was yelling and sobbing at them to get inside). i was a mess with the dispatcher, this was very triggering as somebody who has struggled with suicidal ideation for a good amount of my early life. bless that dispatcher for staying patient and getting people out there. he unfortunately did not make it and later i found out some people i knew, knew him. very heartbreaking.
I was on the phone for a murder-suicide domestic, and sat in silence for 19 minutes on the line, muted, waiting to disconnect when law enforcement confirmed no pulse on the female.
Switchboard operator for a major hospital here. A lot of people feel hesitant to call 000 so we occasionally get calls that really should be for emergency services. One of my favourite calls was from a young bloke, casually telling me all about how he had a fight with his girlfriend and he was walking to her place - but he had had to stop walking because his leg really hurt. I asked what was wrong and he said, again really casually, he'd just been hit by a car.. 😅 I said the best thing for it was to call 000 and tell them that part!
I’ll keep this light & funny in the midst of the death.
I took a 911 call from a drunk dude, barely spoke English asking for a ride home from the bar. He told me he had “too many cervezas” when I told him we weren’t a taxi he laughed and said something to the effect of us being 911 and having to help him… he also lived about 45 mins away and no way were we ever gonna do that transport lol . Idk why he’s in my head but he is. Lives there rent free.
I think back to all my crap calls I’ve gotten and I’m kinda thankful for this guy now. To give me a peek of light in a lot of darkness.
I just wrote about a sad call, let me mention a funny one. It was a slow Saturday and a woman called to ask for help. She was taking care of her boyfriend's cats while he was in prison and the cats kept using the bathtub as a litter box. She scrubbed the tub with Clorox, but felt it still wasn't clean. I told her Clorox was fine, but turn on the bathroom fan when using it. She asked the state police for cleaning tips.
Father calls 911 about 0330. States son is not breathing and that he has him on the floor on his back and has started chest compressions already. I asked if he had a pulse, father was unsure “because his wrists are too small”… but I got him to check again. He couldn’t find a pulse. EMS is already going and I’ve got two officers almost there by this time. His response about the boy’s pulse immediately made think wtf?! Asked the father the age of the child- 4 fucking months old! This guy was doing full-ass chest compressions on a 4mo old like he was a 40yo. I literally yelled at him to STOP IMMEDIATELY and stop touching the child! He started to argue and ask why I’d want him to stop, then paused and said blood was now coming from the infant’s nose and mouth. At that point I heard the REAL reality of the situation overcome him and him realize what he’d done. I don’t know what was actually wrong with the infant but when the father called 911 I was essentially listening to him inadvertently kill his own infant son by crushing him. This call didn’t mess me up or cause me any trauma. Obviously, as a human being I felt a level of sadness over the incident but after hanging up, my general feeling and the consensus among my co-workers and the officers that responded was that the father was a fucking idiot. I fully understand that a person in panic is not thinking rationally but holy shit…
Had one dude do the ol’; call the non-emergency line, give me his name and address, state he was going to kill himself and before I could get two words out, I hear a gunshot and a *thud*.
Another guy shot and killed himself in front of his gf and the guy she was cheating on him with while I was on the phone with the gf.
As a firefighter- MVAs are always the worst. Having to cut people that are alert and conscious out of their car with their dead relative(s) or friend(s) right next to them. Or having to search to find missing body parts that got spread around after some drunk asshole on a motorcycle with his gf on the back tees off on the back of a flatbed tractor trailer doing 100+ mph on the interstate.
I don’t scare easily and am not afraid of dying in a fire, but one call that *did* scare the holy bejesus out of me was a fire at an industrial manufacturing plant. We were given bad info about where the fire was inside the building in relation to the many various, highly flammable and just nasty chemicals we knew they had inside. My crew and I had just about reached the seat of the fire when we heard an engine blast the horn 3 times just as command frantically got on the radio and yelled for all crews to evacuate. We didn’t ask questions and busted ass out of there. Come to find out the fire was in a room that shared a wall with the storage area for their chemicals. The chemicals had been relocated since the last time we’d been out to do an inspection. A minute or so later shit inside starts popping off and exploding and within seconds, the area where my crew and I just were was a pile of very hot burning debris and chemicals. That’s the closest I’ve come to dying on the job, that I know of.
Not my story, but a coworker once got a call from a guy saying the CIA was at his house investigating his computer. In this area, it is well known for dementia patients. We sent a deputy out there to make sure the guy is okay and to ensure no one was in his house except him. But guess what? The CIA was actually in his house looking at a computer. Definitely not what was expected! 😨
My worst call I worked from both sides. I was the on duty Assistant Fire Chief. It was my last shift before becoming the 911 supervisor for a year because I was scheduled for surgery and a long recovery.
The call was came in from a wife who came home and ran over her husband when she pulled into the garage.
I got on scene right after my engine company and as I walked into the house, they had the wife and their toddler in the front seat of a police unit trying to calm her down. My crew chief on scene pulled me to the side and said it was a suicide and there was nothing to do but wait for the coroner.
The husband had sent the wife to pick up food and when she left, he sat down in the middle of the garage and shot himself in the head. When the wife came home she didn’t see him when pulling into the garage because it was an uphill entry and they had a lifted SUV. When she went to get out of the vehicle she saw his arm sticking out under the driver’s side door, screamed, dropped the food and looked under the car and saw him with blood everywhere. She ran out of the house and called 911.
To make matters worse, a supervisor was walking by the police car with the wife while on the phone and was telling someone on the other end that he was on scene of a suicide while we were still waiting for the Chaplin to get there to break the news to her. And she went ballistic.
To make the call harder, I took over the 911 center that following Monday and had to review the call because we had specific requirements and reports for all fatality calls. And to hear her hysteria from the original 911 call after being on scene and seeing the build up of her learning what was going on was just heartbreaking.
That call will always live with me and is one of the biggest reason I would never consider that as a way out of problems personally. I saw what it really does to family members (as I am sure most of us have in this industry).
(Funny) I’m not a dispatcher, firefighter or EMT. I’m just a mom. I was downstairs switching over my laundry and bringing up the load that needed to be folded. I left my phone upstairs in the living room where my 4yo son and I were hanging out. When I got back upstairs I couldn’t find him. I called out for him. I went in his room. He was in his closet with the door closed on my phone with 911. He was just having a random conversation with the dispatcher. I took the phone and apologized. I felt bad for him wasting their time and embarrassed that I let it happen. I’m glad he is able to call. We’ve had several talks since then about the proper time to call 911. He’s 6 now and it hasn’t happened again
This may actually be a blessing. Obviously none of us wants to waste the time of a valuable 911 operator but I’m glad your son knows how to make the call. I had a huge Grand Mal / Tonic Clonic seizure (the kind you see on tv where someone is flailing about on the ground for minutes) while I was home alone with my 2 sons. The oldest was 8 at the time. He called 911 thank goodness, he stayed calm, gave the 911 operator our address, unlocked the front door, put the dog in another room and tried to keep his 5 year old brother calm until help arrived. I’ve never been prouder of him but it breaks my heart that he had to go through it. Unfortunately it wasn’t the last time he had to call 911 because of witnessing me seize. My husband died from sudden death in epilepsy driving home from work and my son who is now 13 checks on me constantly even though I’ve been stable on my meds and seizure free for awhile now thank goodness. Poor kid has had to grow up way too fast. Edited for grammar
Not a dispatcher but I live close to where mass shooter Gabriel Wortman was killed by police. Some of the 911 calls and transcripts were released and one of them was from the children of Wortman’s first victims. They said something like “a crazy man killed my mom and dad” and that they escaped the house but he was basically hunting them. Absolutely heartbreaking. It’s been a little over 4 years since the shootings but I’m pretty sure every Nova Scotian remembers that day vividly. I know I do.
Not call take, but I responded to a call where Dad was showing off his new shotgun at his son's graduation party. Didn't realize it was loaded and shot his son through the chest at close range and killed him. Even the call notes coming through were brutal, major respect to the call take keeping their cool on that one.
Dad claimed to have found their 5 year old unresponsive in th bedroom. I started everyone that way and was trying to give dad CPR instructions, but he kept shouting "where are they? Im gonna sue all of you for not being here!" I said "SIR, I am trying to give you CPR instructions are you even doing them?" Silence then "Yeah I'm doing them but I'm gonna sue you because no one is here yet!" I could clearly tell he wasn't doing CPR. I put in the call notes everything I was hearing and my suspicion. Officers were on scene in under 2 minutes. Within 30 seconds of being on scene they arrested the dad. Kid had been dead for hours. Dad beat the crap put of the kid then called 911 when he realized he wasn't breathing.
Last I heard on the case, dad was taking some kind of plea deal so I didn't have to be subpoenaed but I really hope that horrible man is treated just how he treated that child in prison.
I had a lady once call 911 because she was annoyed with people at a residence. I asked her location and her response was “I can’t tell you that.” And I asked her why not and she told me “because I’m trespassed from here.” 😧
The one that will never leave my head. I was working city radio and could see from my cubby to where one of the call taker positions.
The call taker sent me a Rape in Progress call with zero info on it. Then he stands up looks me in the eye, points at me and mouths the words "its you!".
I started scrambling a response. I knew what he meant.
I had a lot of experience already when I started at this agency, but I still had to go through their dispatch academy. When we got to the section on taking calls, they said I could play the part of the caller and gave me a script bassed off a real call. As a rape survivor myself, it wasn't hard to get into the mindset. This call taker had gotten me to take his first call from. I played it for hard core reality, and afterwards the rest of the class was so shaken up they had to all take a break.
He later said the 911 caller, didn't speak, she just gasped and cried and he said it sounded just like the start of practice call he took from me. Unfortunately, that call really messed him up and he quit a few months later. But I still remember the look on his face and the way he pointed at me saying "it's you."
Yes, he took at guess at the call, but he was right at what was happening.
Not me, but my brother was a first responder, however this was his off duty day and he came upon an accident where the driver was impaled in the chest by the windshield pylon (jeep).
He could not do anything to help and he knew the guy wouldn’t survive. The guy knew it too and spent his last few minutes talking to my brother and giving him messages to pass on to his wife and each child.
My brother said that was harder than any call he’d had, partly because the guy appeared to be his age (young). Finally the EMTs showed up and, before they started working on him the guy reached his hand out to my brother, shook it, and said… “Thanks for staying with me.” As soon as they cut him from the car he passed.
As an ER nurse back in the 80’s I have seen some terrible things . In the age before trauma centers my small city hospital was ground zero for everything in a 50 mile radius. I have seen a mennonite family come in with 3 over come and drowned in cow run off pits . My first fatality was a 15 month old drowning victim in the family pond during a cookout. I will never get over the tiny little sandal on his foot . I had to notify a nurse on the med surg floor that her beautiful 19 year old son died in a single car mva without a scratch on him . I had to repeatedly tell a girl injured in an mva that everything was going to be alright when I knew her best friend was dying in the next room . My ER doctor had to go out and pronounce a girl in the back of an ambulance that had been struck by a train , about 2 hours later a state trooper brought in a Fays Drugstore bag and asked me if I needed a hand … dark humor at its best .
Found out that a guy I delivered no-send (As in, we're not sending an ambulance to) killed his wife and two daughters the morning afterwards.
I always wonder what would have happened if we did send an ambulance; he'd called for a wound infection but failed to say he was struggling with his mental health.
It haunts me how peaceful of a call it was, and the fact I was almost certainly the only person to ever hear him and one of his daughters who isn't now dead.
Not a dispatcher— but I am someone who is frequently in situations where I need to call 911. It’s pure luck at this point. Only 1 has haunted me so far:
I was driving back to my house from my parents house around 10:30pm on a major highway. On the side of the highway I see a woman clutching her ~5-7yr old son and waving her phone light like crazy. My windows were up but I could hear her wailing despite the noise of the cars. I didn’t feel comfortable stopping because it was dark and I was a woman traveling alone. I called 911 and (because it’s not my first rodeo) asked if they had received any other calls regarding the incident and they said no. The dispatcher told me that I did everything right by NOT stopping. The next day, news report came out that it was a family of three (mom/dad/son) walking along the road and the father was hit and the car drove out. Report made it sound like he died instantly. I am trained in ALS and BLS so sometimes I still wonder if I could have saved him if I stopped. My heart breaks for this family.
I am so unbelievably sorry. I have ptsd from my mothers sudden death, I hope you are able to speak to someone about the extreme trauma you experienced 💜
I took one that made national news a while back…Mom killed her son and dog via decapitation. Still messes with my head sometimes just thinking about it.
Almost 2 months ago volunteering with one of the FD’s I’m at,got a call from 911 for a missing 3yr old(mind you we live on a well populated lake) I went enroute with our thermal drone to assist in a search for the missing child(apart of a SAR drone program). Halfway enroute,upgraded to child found under pier in water unresponsive,father jumped in and pulled out his daughter,cpr in progress……It was my first ever pediatric arrest,some calls just stick with you forever and I’ll never forgot that father there the entire time clinging to his daughter in pure distraught that his little child got away and drowned….airmed’d her to the hospital where they called it! SO was able to obtain near by cameras from a house where we learned that she had been playing outside unsupervised and fell into the river for about 25-30mins before she was found…I instantly thought that she would be in the river and that was the first place I was going to search when I got on scene! Everytime I drive by that house on the way home I think about them🙏🏼..
Parents came home to their teenage son drowned in the hot tub. He was epileptic and he had had a seizure and drowned. I’ll never forget hearing them and his sister cry while they waited for first responders to arrive.
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Did he make it?
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This sort of notion has always been trippy to me. This man’s brain (the _real_ central consciousness) is perfectly alive and healthy. And would go on continuing to be. And even when bodily injured in that moment the brain remains alive and healthy. And yet, the brain goes on to die as a consequence. I think I find it morbidity fascinating how the brain can be alive and well, but die as a result of something else. And the brain will in those final moments be aware of its demise. I suppose the fact that if we had the technology to remove a brain and keep it alive then this man would not have died is sort of a tragic loss. I don’t know how to explain the feelings I have on this. They are complex.
Dang..
I will never forget hearing those traumatized wails of primal, guttural anguish. I had never felt what it was like to experience having the wind knocked out of me before, until I heard the sounds those parents made when they found their child dead.
I used to be an L&D nurse. Had a patient whose BP spiked toward the end of labor, so we ended up doing a magnesium bolus, then almost immediately she transitioned, but really struggled to push past crowning, so the baby was stuck for about 2 minutes. Between the heavy magnesium and the extended crowning time, that baby came out super floppy and stunned, and we needed to bag him for a bit. The father saw us doing that and let out this terrible guttural scream. I ended up with every single coworker in my room trying to calm him down. One of my colleagues said the only time she'd ever heard a scream like that before was the one delivery she was in where the mother died from an amniotic fluid embolism (an extremely sudden death). But truly the baby was fine and just needed a bit of extra support to adapt to breathing on his own.
I'm a mom, this sub just gets suggested to me sometimes. I just wanted to comment about that sound. We lost our first two babies at 22 weeks, and my husband made that sound when our son was born. He waved his arms and legs around before he died. I hope to never hear that sound again (or make it myself).
I’m so sorry, that’s horrific.
I'm sure it's more of the sound my high school best friend made when her mom told her that her other high school best friend - who she had only reconnected with that day - died in the car accident she was in after leaving my high school best friend's house. That was a heart-wrenching sound. I still remember it, and it can still bring me to tears 24 years later.
Same sound as when a mother realizes her baby is gone. It’s always the same sound. - NICU Nurse x 7.5 years.
This exact thing happened to my best friend.. i thought it was a joke because i knew he was able to swim
I took a call where this woman called and sounded annoyed that she has to call at all. She said there was a man on fire walking around behind her house. This lady was almost hostile as I asked about his whereabouts etc. A few minutes later the Fire dispatcher told me that the FD got on the scene and found no fire. They started walking around and saw bits of burned clothes on the ground. They followed the trail and found an older gentleman that set a bonfire and had fallen into it. He was still alive. I thought the person who called was mentally ill. Her behavior didn’t match the situation.
Wow
It was just bizarre! The part I always found interesting was that she was the only person that called. I don’t know how serious the burns were but she got help to him when no one else (including himself) did.
She may have been upset because she had warned her neighbors that the man was a danger to himself, and no one listened to her. That, mixed with shock, makes sense to me. But honest to god, who knows. The public is crazy.
I asked her if she knew him and she said she has never seen him before.
True, at least she got him the help he needed
Reluctant and annoyed heroes are my favorite.
I’m not sure if you’re kidding or not, but they’re mine too. It can be easier to get details out of someone irritated and/or disinterested than it is from a panicking family member/friend (as morbid as that sounds). I worked briefly as an emt to meet a prerequisite for med school. Unaffiliated bystanders can add clear context that’ll save a patient long enough to get them to proper help.
I’m praying she was just in shock but damn that’s crazy
It almost sounds more like someone fed up with dealing with her crazy neighbors
Brains do weird things when trying to process things. Instead of panic mode, hers shut down in a different way
I took a call from a mother, who'd recieved a call from the father just saying her son was dead. I got the address and called the father. They were in the middle of nowhere. His 5 year old had rolled a quad bike with no helmet. I talked him through CPR for 45 mins (whilst muting the phone and sobbing as I could hear the brother screaming in the background - what and how he was screaming I'll never forget). He was never going to survive. Anyone in Australia, may recognise some of the following names of cases I was involved in - Darcy (West gate Bridge), Farquarson (his 3 boys into the dam), and the first Bourke St rampage. 💔
Quads are so deadly, we used to not wear helmets when growing up but after my dad was in an accident and had to be airlifted out of the desert with his jaw broken in 8 places, a complete dislocated shoulder and a shattered wrist, the first thing we did is get helmets. Which was very lucky because after that every single person in my immediate family ended up getting in an accident, including me. A huge part of the helmet was chipped off and it makes me cringe to think of what would have happened if I didn't have my helmet.
Back when I was a volunteer FF/EMT, got a call about a guy who wrecked while mountain biking in a park. We toned out neighboring FD to assis(large park). We split up into teams and searched down all the trails. My team found him sitting on the ground, helmet next to him. Helmet was crushed on one side, his head was bloody on that side. He apparently took a spill, striking helmet on a large rock. If it wasn't for that helmet taking the brunt of the damage, he probably would have died.
I had a buddy who was drunk on a quad ran into his 18 year old son (also on a quad). Guy flew over his handlebars and hit his jaw on his son's shoulder. Broken jaw in 4 places. Another drunk buddy had one roll on top of him after attempting an extremely steep incline. Completely smashed his face. In the hospital for weeks with zero health insurance. Neither had a helmet. I never been on one since and don't hang out with drunk idiots anymore.
I remember there was a story in the DFW area of a woman riding over a curb (at home) on a quad, it flipped and killed her. Low speed, just going over the curb. I think it was 2019/pre covid 2020. EDIT TO ADD: Here's the link https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2020/03/28/arlington-police-investigating-atv-crash-that-killed-20-year-old-woman/?outputType=amp
The first time I really learned about death was in 4th grade. A classmate rolled his quad over and we never saw him again after that weekend. That’s when I realized death was permanent. I think about him and wonder how his family is doing every once in a while. And make a point to visit his memorial when I’m at the community center (previously the elementary school).
Wow you've been doing this for awhile
20 years this October
My biological brother has a permanent indent in his chest from a quad accident. How he survived we’ll never know. He was joyriding in our neighborhood, hit a bump going a bit too fast, and rolled. Entire steering wheel went directly against his chest, it was on top of him when it all ended. Only got a broken arm. The indent in his chest made us think he had to have *some* kind of internal damage. He was fully coherent, laughing about the whole thing, and had to be forced to by all of us to go to the ER. Literally *tried to drive himself* when he gave in, but instead my grama took him. Perfectly fine. I’ll never understand what kind of luck this idiot had to survive that crash, let alone walk away with just a broken arm.
An elderly woman called, hysterically screaming. Her elderly husband with dementia had wandered outside while she wasn't supervising him and he stumbled down a small cliff, hit his head and was dying as she called. He wasn't close enough for her to reach, but she could see him and I could hear him through the phone. It was devastating to hear her crying about how she'd told him not to walk out front without her and she couldn't believe he was going this way after they'd spent so many years together. It messed me up for a bit.
> after they spent so many years together As I grow older in age this concept carries more weight. As you experience more time you realize the value of those memories and experiences and the cost of losing them (or those people).
I got that call that no parent wants to get. My 6 year old daughter had drowned in a duck pond on her grandparents farm. She and a friend were outside playing, both fell in. The friend managed to get out, but my daughter got tangled in a patch of weeds under the water and they weren't able to get her out for 45 minutes. Almost 40 years later and it still hurts. edit: Thank you all for your kind words. There are just a few days of the year now that are really hard. This pain is not something I would wish on my worst enemy.
Wow, this has always been my worst fear. Seeing your address pop up in the CAD. Sorry for your loss, I can't imagine what it feels like. I had a call once for a sudden infant death syndrome on a child that was the exact same age as my daughter at the time, and this whole time, I was thinking this could be her. It was a routine call but for me it was the hardest in my career. I probably would never have worked in a 911 center again if it actually was my child.
I'm so, so sorry for your loss. It's life shattering. No parent should ever have to experience that 😔
I’m so very sorry, very sorry. I hope that your life has been a little kinder to you in all those passing years.
Im so sorry..I hope you have some peace.
Delirious old man covered himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire. I work fire and ems. When the wife called, she was so hard to make out, took me 45 seconds to realize a person was on fire. He got the fire out and was okay. At the end of the call, they were arguing. He was trying to grab car keys to go grocery shopping.
I had a call where a man doused his wife in gasoline while she was in the shower and then set her ablaze. I heard her scream to death, wasn’t long at all. He instantly regretted his decision it seemed. People are fucked up.
People are indeed fucked up.
You mean it didn’t take her long to die?
Yep. Or at least to accept her death in silence.
I dont think you'd have a choice in screaming in that situation.
The brain overheats easily. You really hope they lose consciousness quickly.
Not necessarily true. It would take immense willpower.
True. The monk who self-immolated in 1963 in Vietnam, Thích Quảng Đức, was entirely quiet as his flesh burned. A reporter present wrote, “Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think ... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him." Thích Quảng Đức was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by, Diệm, the leader of Vietnam at the time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thích_Quảng_Đức
Yep. People are so fucked up
When I was like 7, my brothers childhood best friend's dad did this. From what I was told, the neighbor was trying to get his hose to put out the fire but either didn't get there on time or the dad told him no. I'm pretty sure the funeral was the last time we ever saw that kid.
What the fuck. Gut wrenching. That poor child. Dad did it to mom?
This makes me somehow feel better about having a bunch of fire ppe just laying around the house
What. The. Fuck.
Not my call but I listened to it. Originally believed to be a family disturbance. Upgraded to a burg I/P when a man with an axe tried to break into the house. Man knew the family that lived here, murdered the mom, dad, and possibly one or two of the kids. The 3rd kid escaped out a window and called 911 from the neighbors house. I’ve never heard panic and hysteria like that. Entire department goes code, med stages. Upon first officer’s arrival, mom was found outside on the sidewalk and so heavily beaten he couldn’t identify if she was male or female. “I have a body down” were his words. Suspect escapes in a vehicle and finds himself directly in front of a cop while his vehicles description is being aired. Traffic stop initiated and he takes off about 130 down the hwy. They chase him for a little when, I think, he had a soft wipeout and bailed on foot. Perimeter set. K9 deployed sniffs the veh and takes off into the brush, followed by a loud yelling (suspect). Cops swarmed this guy and may or may not have “helped him to the ground” a few times. They threw the book at him but I think there was a chance his case was only going to get him a set amount of years instead of life or the chair, can’t remember. Either way he’s in a super max rn. Edit: My memory has failed me. The mother was the only fatality, she was struck with a machete several times and then the suspect ran her over with his car twice. Her husband suffered a non lethal strike to the back of the head, and her daughter lost part of a finger.
Where was this? Damm
Colorado a few years ago
I was listening in on a call while training. Wife had found her husband hung in a closet. The deceased had the same first and last name as me. Spelled the same and everything. Fucked me up for a couple days. I emailed the detective working the case the next day about calling someone back and he freaked out thinking the dead guy emailed him. I can laugh about it all now but damn hearing I was hanging in a closet was messed up.
Just happened to a friend of mine. The only good thing is that he waited until his kids were off at camp (I think) and didn’t find him. Bummer.
I have the exact same name as a woman who was killed and her murder unsolved for many years. It’s on Forensic files. It’s even weirder because we were both nurses. Same name ANd profession!
I feel this. I got a letter from a funeral home with my dad's name on it once.. almost made me stop and think as much as when I found the old letter from our elementary school janitor that hung himself in the closet.. he was a really good guy that a lot of the students looked up to
Worst on duty as a firefighter is probably two friends that were racing on some back country roads - one BMW and one Porsche. Porsche was ahead, lost it on a corner and plowed the passenger side into a tree. Driver was OK. Then the BMW hit the same corner, lost it, and pancaked the Porsche against the tree with his buddy still inside. The car was maybe 2 feet thick after that - couldn't really see it behind/ inside the BMW. Worst off duty was coming up on a head-on DUI crash vs a family in a minivan like 30 seconds after it happened. Pregnant mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and 2 kids. The crash sheared the driver side sliding door off the van and spun in. Grandma wasn't belted in and was ejected face first into a stone wall. There was nothing left of her face but a mess of flesh and bone fragments. I was told she lived two more days. Worst as a dispatcher I can't talk about since court case is still pending/ in extradition process.
Damn. I have the highest respect for you guys.
I feel ya. We had a pickup with 7 passengers hit a highway exit divider. Smashwd all the safety barrels to the concrete barrier. Two ejections doa. One partial ejection still alive but died. Four entrapments one was dead and we landed three life flights but one patient died waiting long extraction. Last two life flighted but one died. My engine sat on scene for hour waiting investigation and coroner. From where I sat on the wall I had doa in front, behind, and to the left. Worst 911 call was trying to talk a guy down from suicide. I kept trying to talk him to letting me transfer him to a mental health provider but he refused. Then he said his wife was pulling up. A pause and rustling then a gun shot. I hear the wife scream from a loud noise scare, door opens, and then the grief moan\scream (worst noise in the world).
I worked in an area with a lot of UDA smuggling. One particular crash, I sent EIGHTEEN medevac helos. No joke, less than a mile from that one a week later, a fellow dispatcher put TWENTY THREE down for patients, each with multiple fatalities beyond the ones that were flown out. My cynicism started about that time when I realized how many resources were committed to those two incidents and they were becoming routine.
How many helicopters did y'all have at your disposal???
Please come back to this when you are able to share
I second this.
Holy fuck. idk why this sub even came up in my feed! The first time was yesterday, for another post that also only had 100 or so upvotes and nothing to do with where I normally hang out on Reddit. I didn’t even click into it! Then just now I chose to click on this one to find out why Reddit wants me in here, and your comment is the first thing I see. It will live rent free in my head for years, I’m guessing. This is wtf I get for not minding my damn business ☹️
A man called in to say he'd stabbed a woman in the neck. Yes it was intentional. No he didn't know her. No he wasn't going to help stop the bleeding. He'd just been released from prison a few days earlier and didn't know what to do with his life now.
Why didn't he rob a bank then? Why kill a random person? People like him should suffer for eternity.
That is so sad. American? Says alot about our "justice" system.
Bro haven't you heard? We don't have a justice system anymore.
Indeed, now we just have a dangerous recidivism system. 🙄
Active shooter call at a club in the city. Person who called was just screaming “He’s shooting people!! People are dying people are dying!!” and wouldn’t give me an address, and I couldn’t get a good reading on her location. As I’m trying to get the address, people are screaming in the background and gunshots are just rapid firing and she still isn’t telling me which club this is. Not being able to get a location during that - it’s the worst feeling. It’s the most helpless I ever felt in my life. I quit 911 about a month later. I still have nightmares about the screaming and feeling like I’m stuck.
If it makes you feel any better, you may have been stuck with a caller that wasn’t very helpful, but odds are there was someone else in that crowd that also called 911 and provided more information. You did the best you could with what was given to you, but you definitely did not stop those people from receiving the help they needed.
Thank you 💕 I was the first call. Short staffed and no one to back me up when I couldn’t get what I needed. Felt like an eternity before that second call came in. I appreciate your comment.
This sounds warily similar to the Pulse nightclub shooting. So sorry you had to go through this
As an Orlandoan this
I have a few: Funniest call was when I had moved to morning shift 7am-7pm and I got a call that there was a rather large man in the park who was eating doughnuts and drinking coffee while being completely naked and giving himself a bit of attention. Saddest call was my very first 911 call. A daughter called the admin line because her mother had gone to the military cemetery and committed suicide on her father's grave. The girl was about 14 and was in an absolute panic because her mother had sent her texts advising of what she was doing and for some reason decided to send pictures of her cutting her self to her daughter. The mother was dead when we got to her. I've only had one subpoena in my time of dispatching but it was for a girl who called in advising her father had been sexually molesting her for years. It was a very strange experience because all the dispatchers I worked with had never been called into court (minus a few for high visibility crimes). I can remember the first time I saw her father and just feeling such an intense anger and then shock when they played the 911 tape. The daughter was 12 when she called and I just remember how defeated she looked. Her mother backed the father and once he was charged and the jury found him guilty the daughter ended up staying with other family members as the mother was...less than supportive.
Honest question: why would a 911 dispatcher need to be called into court? What more could you provide that is not in the call recording and dispatching records? Those are sad and messed up stories, btw.
I can't honestly answer the why portion. I had been in dispatch about 2 years at that point and my shift partner had been doing it for 10 years and had never heard of a dispatcher being summoned. Even my Sgt. was surprised. They literally just played the call, asked me if that was me on the phone and mostly asked about the process I took. Then the defendants attorney asked me if I "heard any molestation occurring" and I simply responded "no... as we all heard on the call previously played, I only took the callers complaint and supplied the information to the officer to respond". Needless to say, I'm not sure why the prosecutor felt like the 911 dispatcher would hold any weight (not trying to diminish what we do, just like you said not sure what else I could've offered besides the call recording itself) or how it would help to have me physically be there. Your guess is as good as mine lol.
Woman who has been kidnapped and held hostage for like five years by some guy. I thought she was crazy at first by the tone of her voice, but didn't narrate that information in the call because it'd of garnered a different response, guy had multiple assault rifles, AKs, home made explosives, drugs, swords, kevlar vests and plates etc. She was very calm about it all and gave great detail of where everything was, who he was, why he did it, what he drove, where he was going, names dobs, it was a LOT, and I thought it was just being made up, or a prank, or just something that wasn't what the call was being told to me it was. Turns out it was pretty much all true. It's the call that kinda made me reevaluate what people say and how receptive I am to believing them...unless they tell me someone lives inside their vagina. I've gotten that call too.
I always tell my trainees, "Maybe he's a mental case, AND a man with an ax is living in his attic. 2 things can be true at the same time."
Yeah, my partner works with unhoused people and some of her clients have bad mental health. Some of them complain about bugs on them when they clearly don't have them, or that bad people are zapping them with energy. Then those same people complain that their new landlord won't get rid of cockroaches or that a neighbor is being a creep or whatever - and sometimes it's mental health and not real, but often it is real. People act like there's crazy homeless people and normal people, but we all have our mental health problems and we all interact with the world enough to survive and understand enough about what's real.
This exactly. My schizophrenic uncle kept complaining of waking up to bugs all over him and them all over his apartment. We checked, but didn't see anything. Social services checked, but didn't see anything. Apartment management claimed they checked, but nothing was there. This went on for months and an increase in meds + psych services made no difference in him seeing "bugs everywhere". Everyone, family + professional, assumed he was just mentally ill. My uncle committed suicide and left a note basically saying he couldn't live with this bug infestation that no one else seen and if that was what the rest of life meant living with schizophrenia, he was done. Devastating was an understatement , but worse - upon investigation of his death, they found the apartment complex was INFESTED with bed bugs, the worst case my city ever saw. The apartment complex knew about it, but swept it under the carpet and did absolutely nothing to treat it ever. They ended up getting their property taken from them, in fact they tore it down thank God, because it was for disabled housing...of all populations. You can most definitely be mentally ill and correct at the same time. It's vital to give the benefit of doubt - might just save a life.
That is so heartbreaking, I’m so sorry 😢
Omg that is absolutely horrible. I’m so sorry for your loss
Was he not covered in bites that people could see?
Small Knicks here and there. His psychologist said they were from skin picking, not bugs and having 0 history with bed bugs or schizophrenia, the family believed professional opinion unfortunately. Lots to learn from in hindsight.
But when you say people checked, did they not check the bed?
I have BD type 1 and while having manic episodes I can experience psychosis and very rarely i will get tactile hallucinations. I’m normally a well adjusted person all things considered. I got manic while I had covid and felt like my teeth were moving in my head. My partner was away and had to talk me down from removing my teeth with pliers. Even now, years later I wake up in a cold sweat worried about my own mind betraying me.
A man hung himself in the garage and his two teenage sons found him. (16, 19) I walked them through cutting him down and starting CPR. He had a pulse, but died at the hospital. He was a single parent and had some major financial difficulties. Those poor boys were so brave to work so hard to save their dad. I feel so bad for them.
Ohmygod.
That’s awful. I’m so sorry for those kids.
Damn...
I took a call from a 19 year old mother who accidentally smothered her 2 month old during cosleeping.
Used to work dispatch, now I'm in crime scene. I've gone out on several of these calls in the last few years. Pretty heartbreaking.
It really broke my heart. My kids are preteens now, and I didn't co sleep in general, but practically every exhausted new mom has fallen asleep with the baby on accident. I was lucky, but this young lady was not.
Thank you to everyone in this particular comment chain about call like this. As a father of 6 I couldn’t imagine being called by anyone in this situation and have to absorb their unbelievable wave of despair.
I took this call, except he was 5mo. The whole time she was doing compressions, I could hear her toddler making worried noises in the background and she kept saying to wait, that she was busy helping brother. The words I'll never, ever forget, though, were when she told me, "he was just starting to smile." She was picked up the next night for a (failed) suicide attempt by overdose.
I've responded to this in my ground career. I don't have words to describe it
I cannot imagine the absolutely surreal amount agony you have to cover up in order to function as a responder to an incident like this. Thank you for being there to do what you could because that’s an atmosphere I don’t think I’d wish on my own worse enemy. I haven’t the highest respect for you and others who could handle situations like this.
I took a call from a woman who came home from her job as an ER nurse to find that her husband had accidentally smothered their 2mo son when he rolled over on him on the couch. She was so calm and repeatedly told me that her son was gone and beyond any help. Later, when one of my deputies keyed up on the radio, I heard what I thought was Mom wailing. When we did our CISM briefing, I learned it was Dad. Gut-wrenching. Edit: child's age changed from years to months
i just got jumped in a tik tok comment section for warning a mother against cosleeping. they all think it will never happen to them until it does
Its always the suicides that plague me after. One call a man called in stated he was going to shoot him self in the middle of the bar and from witness accounts and what was heard he did exactly that. Traumatized the poor bartender all you could here were screams.
Why do people do that? You want to kill yourself, that's one thing, but why cause a scene and traumatize others for no reason? What did those strangers do to him?
We had a kid decide to take a dive off of one of the upper floor balconies in a high rise dorm at 11am on a beautiful, sunny Saturday. Tons of other students outside enjoying the day at that time had their lives changed in a matter of seconds. Suicide contagion ran its course over the next several weeks.
Those other poor kids were probably deeply traumatized
My guess is they feel unseen and unimportant, and it's a last ditch attempt to be seen/acknowledged. They may not even want to die but are so desperate to not suffer any more that they're willing to die if needed... but doing it someplace public still might give others a chance to help if they want to. I do also think reasons are very complex, and there's no single answer. I don't think narcissism is the reason in even most of those cases though.
Not mine, but one I used to use in training for others: Dispatcher gets a call from her husband on 911. Their sons were driving the riding lawnmower, and rolled it over, and it landed on one of her sons, partially disemboweled him. She took that call like a professional and got help going.... And then kept working. Her town had had a robbery at the same time and no crews were available to come in and relieve her. I guess it took a while for them to find someone who could come in and take over so that she could go to the hospital. I've done this job a long time. I don't know if I could have kept working. She did it with less than a year on the job. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18644973
I have to drop a reply for anyone who is worried like I was. The article subheading says the child was "fatally hurt," but further on it states that he survived and has a brief interview with him.
Yeah, that was shocking to me that it wasn't mentioned by OP. I'm always amazed by dumb things like that - sure he had an injury that could've been fatal but if you survive then it's not "fatally hurt"
That little boy is 26 now, if I did the math correctly. I wonder how he’s doing now. I can’t imagine what the mom was going through not being able to leave and go to her son. I couldn’t do it
I saw a go fund me for an electric bike for him a few years ago. I think it said he can't drive due to medications and he didn't have the strength for a normal bike, but it sounded like he's doing pretty well considering the severity of his injuries. I am amazed his mom kept working. Id be tempted to just quit and leave
Holy shit, the kid lived and recovered.
From the victim's family, Thanks for all you do. My daughter was driving home on a major roadway. Unfortunately a drunk wrong way driver was also on the road that night. Worse case scenario a head on happened, my daughter was killed instantly. 7 months later meeting with the DA we found out the drunk driver had gone 8 miles in the wrong direction before the wreck. We were able to listen to the 911 calls regarding the wrong way driver. The young lady on 911 /dispatch was amazing, she was calling out every interchamge, lane movement and speed that was reported by callers. State Patrol was chasing and trying to block the SUV but unfortunately she killed my daughter before they caught up. I was so impressed by the manor of which the dispatcher handled the call, semi frantic but still composed, I asked to meet her. She was one year on the job and just off probationary period. While we lost my daughter that night, the efforts of that dispatcher will never be forgotten. For those of you who do answer the calls, they won't always turn out well but we appreciate you.
Not a 911 call but when I worked in OR recovery, I took care of 12 year old boy who was small for his age. He had refused to stop playing video games when his mom told him to. She got angry, took a kitchen knife and cut off 4 of his fingers. We were able to reattach two. I wonder who called 911. Was it his mother? Sibling? Father? Was there someone else there who had to watch helplessly? My heart still aches for that boy.
This is one of more horrifying replies I've read to this post.
Someone told me I was gonna get fired because I wouldn't send a cop for a legally parked car😭
Well I’m assuming they followed through, because you were clearly in the wrong! 😂
*scanning through the SOPs Please call back and ask for my supervisor. She needs a good laugh. Hanging up now to deal with actual emergencies.
Lmao "the ambulance is parked near my window, it's making noise I can't sleep" Well then why don't you walk up to the paramedics and tell them how you feel yourself instead?
Patient in apartment building decides to commit suicide. Sits in bathtub, letting the water run and slits both his wrists. Patient dies but the tub eventually overflows from the still running water. Downstairs neighbor calls 911 because his ceiling is leaking bloody water. In almost 2 decades of dispatch It's definitely not the worst call but it's definitely the one that looked the most like it was out of a horror film
I took a call for a 3 year old that had been found in a pool, drowned. I was walking mom through CPR instructions but the mom’s mom said she is a nurse and was in the background already doing it. I’ll never forget hearing her tell my caller “she’s gone sweetie.” Oof. I had to go take a walk after that one. It’s a small community so I went to a get together they had after her funeral and told them who I was. They were extremely grateful but it was still extremely sad.
😓 these are so sad
you never know. I hope the kiddo was transported to the ED and they vigorously worked to revive her. kids can do surprisingly well after a drowning. sucks it didn't help this time.
(Funny) I had a 6 yo who was playing on 911 ask me if I had kids, I said no, she asked if I was positive, I said yes, then she dropped “you better not be lying to me, cause liars go to hell when they die” on me 😂
My son called when he was 4. I felt terrible 😂
The poor mom (who had no idea) was extremely caught off guard when three deputies from a different county (the call pinged in my county but it was just over the county line, really weird situation) pulled up to her house to see what was up lol
My dad was a dispatcher, and some poor dispatcher got to hear me sing Jesus Loves You and ask to talk to my dad before my mom woke up to talk to them
My first 911 call ever was from a hysterical man, he was transferred to me from another town. He was on the highway, but his 14 year old son was home and reported he could not wake his mother up. I instructed dad to have his son call me directly. While I spoke to the son, I asked him a myriad of questions, but it was clear his mom was too far gone. Cold, stiff, etc. I asked him to step out of the room and hang on the phone with me until I got help there. Medics called TOD shortly after their arrival. The mom wasn’t feeling well when her son and dad left in the morning, and she stated she just wanted to sleep in. He came home from school to find her that way. Not sure what happened, but no suspected OD/suicide etc. The sobbing of that poor teenager, and his screams saying “mom! Mom no! I love you please answer me!” were absolutely heart breaking.
I read all of these comments, and THIS one got me in the feels. Devastating.
It was definitely a harsh welcome into the field. I don’t think I will ever forget that young man. It’s been many years and I hope he is doing well
a local known nutjob was always causing shit in town 😭 i got a non-emergency call saying their neighbor was naked in the front lawn in a "T pose" and just standing there. the officer got there and she trying to open his door..once he verified there was infact a naked lady he called for backup and 2 other officers showed up. she said that a snake crawled up her coochie and laid the antichrist in her stomach and the only way to get it out is to not sin and to repent, but she smoked weed so she crucified herself in her front yard but god forgave her and sent 2 men and a woman to save her and have sex with her to replace the anti christ in her tummy by breaking the snake egg. she called the next day and apologized and figured out that her drug dealer put a curse on her because she hasnt paid him in a few weeks and he keeps calling her. so now she keeps hearing a click in her head that drove her crazy making her crucify herself but she needed an officer to remove the curse by snapping a stick just above her head. our female office obliged the request and went out there.. she broke a stick over her head and said the passphrase and she was cured apparently.
Ok T posing nudist guy was the comic relief I needed in this exact moment, good night and god bless Edit- *gal. Women are weird too I GUESS
Took a call from a guy coming down an on-ramp onto the expressway, dark and in the rain, when a random woman ran across on foot and he struck her. Call started with him getting out of his car. He ran up and was doing the best he could to try and tell me how she was doing. Based on what he told me, and what I could hear over the phone, she was not going to make it. He asked about CPR, and I had to explain that with that kind of traumatic injury, CPR isn't an option. He was quiet for a few moments, and then said "I took my coat and shirt and covered her up, she looks cold" That man died inside that night.And his pain punched right through the phone and ripped me apart. Nothing I could have said to him would have stopped him from blaming himself. I left the profession shortly after that. My center was a pretty active area, and I'd heard some awful stuff. But that one broke me in a way I wasn't ready for.
Man hung himself in the basement , his wife found him. ( call I took yesterday ). Telling her how to cut him down and do cpr was intense. You can never forgot screams like that. She was so brave. I had to step off the floor for a minute
Did he survive?
unfortunately not , mostly walked her through cpr because she wanted it but it was an obvious death. Definitely shed some tears after
Not a call but when I was in Iraq a bomber walked into a Group of my fellow service men who were handing out chocolates and toys to a group of school kids. I turned around just as he let go of the trigger. I'll save you any description as it still is extremely vivid in my mind and to this day brings me to the edge of my mental breaking point. Only 2 survived one GI lost his legs and most of his right arm, and one of the kids who miraculously only had a slight contusion to her head. 13 lives snuffed out right infront of me and nothing I could do to stop it. I struggle everyday with that one. I went on to do 2 more tours and that day was the fucking worst.
I read something similar on a Reddit thread about a guy in Afghanistan and how his superior told him you don’t trust the village kids no matter what. A little girl was walking towards them and his superior told him to shoot her. He kept hesitating. She was crying and peeing herself. I think the superior jumped in and shot her, and then the bomb went off. Someone forced her to wear this bomb to try and kill the solders. I felt so horrible for that little girl.
:::Hugs::: my friend. 22 pushups done for you, thankful you’re still here to keep on keeping on. <3
I didn't take this call, it was one I heard while in the academy for training. A five year old called 911 to say that his mom wouldn't wake up. That child was calmer than most adults would have been. This was before enhanced 911, so they had to ask for an address. Not only did he know his address, but he was able to give landmarks in the area (it was a rural area). The dispatcher kept asking questions and he'd answer. He said he woke up and was worried because mommy usually came and woke him up. That's why he went looking for her. The part that was heartbreaking was when he said that she was really cold so he got his blanket to cover her up. He asked the dispatcher if that was okay. Almost everyone in the class was crying at that. He was alone in the house, his father was traveling for work. Police/fire/rescue got there fairly quickly. She was DOA. I heard this call back in 1988, it still sticks with me.
I have a lot of bad calls so it’s hard to say the worst. For me, the scariest was a kidnapping in progress. Adult woman stalked and kidnapped by her ex and thrown in the trunk with a shovel and other tools to kill and bury her. I was terrified because I did not want a Denise Amber Lee situation. He punched her in the head before throwing her in the trunk. I got the call while she was in the trunk and she had no idea where she was, what kind of car, etc. It was hard to hear her because she was whispering in the trunk while the car was in motion on a shitty dirt road. She would only answer yes or no questions. This was before rapid sos, so I had to rely on phs1 and phs2 rebids. They were out in the desert so the location kept flipping from the tower to the phone back to the tower. By using her phone number to search cad history for previous calls we quickly figured out who she is and who he is and the possible vehicle information. Thank the lord that this man was fucking stupid and decided he was going to bury her on his family’s ranch and not unknown desert. One of the officers was familiar with this guy and had chased him the same way as the location updates on a previous DV call for the couple and remembered that the guy had a family ranch out that way so most units headed there. Thankfully the suspect was not speeding, but taking a leisurely country drive. The officers were able to catch up and box him in at the gate of the ranch. It ended up in a shootout, with the victim still in the trunk, all while on the phone with me. I stayed with her until the officers opened the trunk. My second scariest was an insane situation where a grandma was shooting everyone in the house because she didn’t want to be moved into a care home. She had already shot someone and was going room to room to find my caller and shoot her. I had to work with my caller to help them decide if they wanted to fight and run or just hide. Caller got cornered while trying to find a place to hide and eventually had to go hands on with grandma. A small altercation with a few non-hitting rounds fired. Caller managed to get granny on the ground, kicked the gun away, and ran out the door.
I had an elderly male in one of our nursing homes call around 3-4am swearing he was drugged and dizzy and the pd got the call first and only called the facility to have someone check on him, when I got the call on the fire side he was verbally upset and distraught and I couldn’t find it in me not to at least send the ambulance company to just do a WBC on him. I know how the nursing homes around us are and it was either a cry for help or a cry for attention but I know if it was my loved one and I found out the cities departments responsible for being helpful didn’t send anyone just to check I’d be pretty upset plus if he wasn’t drugged (most likely not the case) and he was feeling ill and something happened to him that would be on me and our sops require if we get the call we send someone no matter the case. He sounded helpless and scared and I was not going to leave him like that. I think any dispatcher in my shoes would have done the same. I thought about bringing it up to the higher ups but I didn’t want to make a case if the sops for the pd side only required them to contact the facility and who knows if he changed his story from calling them to calling me. This is just a call that stuck with me because I feel unsure about my decision regarding bringing that up to higher ups.
This thread popped up in my feed. I’m an RN. Sending someone to do a quick medical screening is the right call. Old people in sepsis sometimes only show increased confusion until they crash. And some nursing homes are better than others so you can’t always trust they will call before it’s a shit show.
I went through this with my mom. Nursing home wouldn't call ambulance. My sister called PD, they called facility and chose not to come. I called my mom and walked her through what to say to nurse for them to call ambulance. Ambulance came and told my sister to come in and get Mom's stuff because they wouldn't be bringing her back there. I'm still angry at PD. Mom died from sepsis as a result of infection that started in nursing home "care." Thank you for running the call up the chain.
Prior PD here. Worth mentioning not all buildings like this allow us 24hr access so to your point, SOP might just be to alert the facility vs breaking something to get in, but I would always be happy to have someone like you highlighting the fact that the call gave you a particularly bad feeling and you wanted extra attention/efforts put on getting to that person. It isn't always obvious by the notes/radio traffic some of the small indicators you guys are picking up on. Nothing wrong with your choice to not push the issue up the chain, but always feel empowered to do so, your interpretation is very valuable. Edit to add: If the cops you work with have an issue with that, they can pound sand
any clue on the outcome?
He was transferred based on his request after that I do not know
One of our lieutenants had 8-9 kids. His young daughter was wearing a scarf and slid down a stair railing in their home. The scarf got caught and she accidentally hung herself. I talked to her grandmother and I’ll never forget the way she spoke to me. And I’ll never forget every deputy in the county flying to the house because they recognized the address.
Oof. I almost hung myself when I was about 5 because I had the bright idea to tie my jump rope across my plastic slide handles and slide under it. Instead it caught me right around the neck and the only reason my mom found me in time was because our dog that was with me started barking incessantly
How old was the kid? That's so sudden and sad and just because of a scarf...geeze.
I was talking with an unhinged teenager that we already had a couple calls on earlier that night and was a frequent run away. She kept talking about how much she hated her mom and was going to kill her. I could hear her mom yelling occasionally in the background. The caller had a knife and every time I’d get her a little calm she would work herself back up and start yelling she was going to murder her mom. It felt like the officers took forever to get there too. I managed to get her outside of the house to wait for the officers. But the things she was saying she wanted to do to her mom had me believing she would do them if the officers didn’t get there in time. Like she was just sane enough to know she was psycho. I had just started training someone too who was listening to that call. My trainee learned what crazy was that day.
Call from a tow truck driver on scene of a traffic collision on the freeway in the rain, saying a responding officer who just arrived got hit by a passing car. Luckily, the caller was calm and knew the exact location, and fire was already enroute to that collision. Officer lived.
My first year by myself in my small county 911. Had a guy call to tell me he was going to kill himself because of his upcoming court date re SA against his daughter. I said what a young inexperienced kid would say, didn't work. He did it on the phone. Wasn't that traumatic though. Just a loud noise followed by a dead phone line. It took me years to realize he did it because he was guilty and that helped. Grandparents calling to say their granddaughter seemed drunk. Stumbling, staring, etc. Turns out her mom had dogs in the house with fleas. This 4 yo had fleas in every orifice. Mom kept the dogs, lost custody of her 2nd kid.
Trauma/ICU nurse here. Officers said a woman had called 911 to report a woman screaming in the apartment above hers. When they arrived, a man covered in blood answered the door and told them, "She ain't gonna make it into work today!" with a big smile on his face. He had beaten his girlfriend nearly to death and gouged out her eyes with an electrical plug. Being newly blind, she was understandably terrified of every little sound.
That's absolutely heartbreaking. It's fucking scary how many psychopaths are living among us like that. Do you know if she pulled through??
She did. I think about her a lot.
One of my two youngest (middle schoolers at the time) contacted me via text that there was an active shooter on campus, the swat team was in the gymnasium where one of them was, and they couldn’t reach them. I begged the one texting me to NOT text their sibling for fear the phone vibrating or ringing would give away their hiding location. It was excruciating, and I could hear my ears ringing and my heartbeat swooshing. Time completely stopped. When one was finally able to call, the sound of their voice was the most hauntingly painful yet joyous and relieving sound I’d ever heard. Thank God the shooter was detained and no one was injured. It was traumatic and changed all of us.
Not a dispatcher but while working in an ER a large man ran by security with something in his arms. A nurse grabbed the thing and the man fled. The something was an 18 month old baby who had been shot through the head by her slightly older brother while the big guy (dad) was playing dice. At first the baby was pretty stable but after a few minutes she brady’d down to the 40s and went from purposeful movement to generalized seizure. She had been looking at me when she became unstable and during her seizure her eyes were fixed on me (until I moved). The peds hospital sent an ambulance to our ED and while trying to transfer her to their stretcher, she crashed. Compressions were begun, she was already tubed but it took ~1.5 hours to get her stable for transfer less than 2 miles away. She passed a few days later and her poor mother made the best choice, to have all her baby’s organs donated. Something like 6 kids were given a chance at a longer or better life.
I'm not a responder nor 911 operator, but sometimes I feel like I took the wrong direction even though I don't feel I could handle it. There's nearly a guarantee that I'll have to call 911 at least twice a year, and all for good reason. I've already had my two this year for driving by a house on fire, and an elderly woman driving the wrong way down the highway, nearly hitting me head on. I've had to call 911 at least twice a year, sometimes 4 times, every year since 2010 for what feels like every possible reason. I've seen people hang themself, have heart attacks, strokes, seizures. I've witnessed way too many car accidents, barn fires, house fires, field fires, people driving and not knowing their car was on fire. I've been the last phone call before suicides, and dated a man that ended up killing himself and the woman he married. I am cursed. The worst thing to me was grocery shopping and trying to get to the Mac and cheese. An elderly man was standing and blocking me and I waited patiently for about 5 minutes. Finally, I just asked him to move and recognized that something was wrong. His face was hung on one side and he couldn't talk and barely move. I could see the terror in his face and I called for help and everyone around me ignored me. This was one of my earliest situations and I didn't even have my cell phone with me. I never found out if he was ok and I wish I had caught on earlier. Some people say this is a blessing for what happens to me, but I can't feel that way. It's hard and I've never had any type of training. I just rely on people like you to tell me what to do. I don't think I could ever do your job. Thank you all for reading this and I appreciate all that everyone does. I sometimes wonder if a log is kept on how many times people had to call 911 and if I could break a Guinness record.
There are sometimes (in my county) some serious calls only have 1 caller, and sometimes they dont even call 911. There have been so many times that the 1 caller has saved someone's life. Better safe to call and make sure they have it than assume someone else has called when they haven't. So many people are scared to call 911 but we are just here to help. (EDITED grammar)
I learned a long time ago that someone died in public and nobody called 911 because they all thought someone else did. I have to call in just to be sure and I'm afraid I'll annoy you all. Luckily, there's only been one time where someone was rude and it was about an exhaust falling off a car and flew into a field, catching fire. "Well, do you have a fire extinguisher?" No ma'am. "How much on fire is it?" Well, right now it's only about 5-10 feet stretch but I bet it will be over 20 ft long in just a minute or two. Didn't even ask the location first. That was within the last 3 years. It spread pretty quick and the car who lost their exhaust never even stopped. I didn't even know things like that were possible. Ended up taking about 3 acres of the field.
Surprisingly, as someone who takes 911 calls, I've never had to call 911. I couldn't imagine having to get the courage to do so and being met with a rude operator.
I've had to call 911 a few times for very obviously drunk drivers on the road with me. More than once, the dispatcher has been rude about it, like this isn't really an emergency if he hasn't hit anyone or crashed yet. One even told me I should have just called the local Sherrif or police instead of jumping straight to 911. There are digital message boards in my area that periodically have a notice to call 911 if you suspect a drunk driver. I've also been told before that that's the correct action to take. I don't know the number for any given police department for whatever area I happen to be driving through and, since I'm always driving at the time, I'm sure as hell not gonna try Googling the number while also trying to keep track of and avoid a drunk driver near me.
Aside from life and death emergencies, 911 is ALSO for crimes in progress.
We were always taught in CPR/EMS/BLS/ACLS class thst it’s imperative to point at a specific person and say “you call 911” because most of the time people are in shock and just assume someone else will do it. There have been way too many lives lost while dozens of people watched because they all thought someone else would/was calling 911
You should take a first aid/CPR course! It's useful for anyone, and maybe especially for you
I'm working on it. If I can help any other way, I'd love to. Luckily, I've never had to attempt cpr yet but with my path, I'm sure it will come up eventually.
One of the most unusual was the woman who called 911 to tell me something came through her windshield and that she couldn't move, but wouldn't look to tell me what it was. I had to keep talking to her and keep her mind occupied, because she kept wanting to hang up and call her husband. Eventually, I got a motor unit to her, and it hit the fan. She was rushed into emergency surgery to remove the rebar rod that impaled her chest and pinned her to the seat. It was absolutely life-saving surgery.
Funniest: two women were neighbors and having a dispute over street parking. One yells at the other that she needs to get laid. The first goes back in her house, grabs a giant dildo and slaps the neighbor in the face with it. Assault with a dildo.
Baby swallowed open safety pin because mama liked to make clothes.
do you know if the baby was okay after?
I never found out. I like to hope so. His little coughs scared me to death!
i am not a dispatcher but i do imagine i was this call for somebody. the first time i ever moved out was with my ex into his house, and one day we got home and we were unloading some things from the car. after a couple minutes, the girl across the street ran out of the house with blood on her screaming at us to call the police and that her boyfriend was trying to kill himself. as she was out there, we heard the gunshot, i watched her run back in screaming. the ambulance arrived first but refused to go into the house until cops were on scene (at the time i was unaware that this is for their safety, so i was yelling and sobbing at them to get inside). i was a mess with the dispatcher, this was very triggering as somebody who has struggled with suicidal ideation for a good amount of my early life. bless that dispatcher for staying patient and getting people out there. he unfortunately did not make it and later i found out some people i knew, knew him. very heartbreaking.
I was on the phone for a murder-suicide domestic, and sat in silence for 19 minutes on the line, muted, waiting to disconnect when law enforcement confirmed no pulse on the female.
Switchboard operator for a major hospital here. A lot of people feel hesitant to call 000 so we occasionally get calls that really should be for emergency services. One of my favourite calls was from a young bloke, casually telling me all about how he had a fight with his girlfriend and he was walking to her place - but he had had to stop walking because his leg really hurt. I asked what was wrong and he said, again really casually, he'd just been hit by a car.. 😅 I said the best thing for it was to call 000 and tell them that part!
I’ll keep this light & funny in the midst of the death. I took a 911 call from a drunk dude, barely spoke English asking for a ride home from the bar. He told me he had “too many cervezas” when I told him we weren’t a taxi he laughed and said something to the effect of us being 911 and having to help him… he also lived about 45 mins away and no way were we ever gonna do that transport lol . Idk why he’s in my head but he is. Lives there rent free. I think back to all my crap calls I’ve gotten and I’m kinda thankful for this guy now. To give me a peek of light in a lot of darkness.
I just wrote about a sad call, let me mention a funny one. It was a slow Saturday and a woman called to ask for help. She was taking care of her boyfriend's cats while he was in prison and the cats kept using the bathtub as a litter box. She scrubbed the tub with Clorox, but felt it still wasn't clean. I told her Clorox was fine, but turn on the bathroom fan when using it. She asked the state police for cleaning tips.
Father calls 911 about 0330. States son is not breathing and that he has him on the floor on his back and has started chest compressions already. I asked if he had a pulse, father was unsure “because his wrists are too small”… but I got him to check again. He couldn’t find a pulse. EMS is already going and I’ve got two officers almost there by this time. His response about the boy’s pulse immediately made think wtf?! Asked the father the age of the child- 4 fucking months old! This guy was doing full-ass chest compressions on a 4mo old like he was a 40yo. I literally yelled at him to STOP IMMEDIATELY and stop touching the child! He started to argue and ask why I’d want him to stop, then paused and said blood was now coming from the infant’s nose and mouth. At that point I heard the REAL reality of the situation overcome him and him realize what he’d done. I don’t know what was actually wrong with the infant but when the father called 911 I was essentially listening to him inadvertently kill his own infant son by crushing him. This call didn’t mess me up or cause me any trauma. Obviously, as a human being I felt a level of sadness over the incident but after hanging up, my general feeling and the consensus among my co-workers and the officers that responded was that the father was a fucking idiot. I fully understand that a person in panic is not thinking rationally but holy shit… Had one dude do the ol’; call the non-emergency line, give me his name and address, state he was going to kill himself and before I could get two words out, I hear a gunshot and a *thud*. Another guy shot and killed himself in front of his gf and the guy she was cheating on him with while I was on the phone with the gf. As a firefighter- MVAs are always the worst. Having to cut people that are alert and conscious out of their car with their dead relative(s) or friend(s) right next to them. Or having to search to find missing body parts that got spread around after some drunk asshole on a motorcycle with his gf on the back tees off on the back of a flatbed tractor trailer doing 100+ mph on the interstate. I don’t scare easily and am not afraid of dying in a fire, but one call that *did* scare the holy bejesus out of me was a fire at an industrial manufacturing plant. We were given bad info about where the fire was inside the building in relation to the many various, highly flammable and just nasty chemicals we knew they had inside. My crew and I had just about reached the seat of the fire when we heard an engine blast the horn 3 times just as command frantically got on the radio and yelled for all crews to evacuate. We didn’t ask questions and busted ass out of there. Come to find out the fire was in a room that shared a wall with the storage area for their chemicals. The chemicals had been relocated since the last time we’d been out to do an inspection. A minute or so later shit inside starts popping off and exploding and within seconds, the area where my crew and I just were was a pile of very hot burning debris and chemicals. That’s the closest I’ve come to dying on the job, that I know of.
Not my story, but a coworker once got a call from a guy saying the CIA was at his house investigating his computer. In this area, it is well known for dementia patients. We sent a deputy out there to make sure the guy is okay and to ensure no one was in his house except him. But guess what? The CIA was actually in his house looking at a computer. Definitely not what was expected! 😨
My worst call I worked from both sides. I was the on duty Assistant Fire Chief. It was my last shift before becoming the 911 supervisor for a year because I was scheduled for surgery and a long recovery. The call was came in from a wife who came home and ran over her husband when she pulled into the garage. I got on scene right after my engine company and as I walked into the house, they had the wife and their toddler in the front seat of a police unit trying to calm her down. My crew chief on scene pulled me to the side and said it was a suicide and there was nothing to do but wait for the coroner. The husband had sent the wife to pick up food and when she left, he sat down in the middle of the garage and shot himself in the head. When the wife came home she didn’t see him when pulling into the garage because it was an uphill entry and they had a lifted SUV. When she went to get out of the vehicle she saw his arm sticking out under the driver’s side door, screamed, dropped the food and looked under the car and saw him with blood everywhere. She ran out of the house and called 911. To make matters worse, a supervisor was walking by the police car with the wife while on the phone and was telling someone on the other end that he was on scene of a suicide while we were still waiting for the Chaplin to get there to break the news to her. And she went ballistic. To make the call harder, I took over the 911 center that following Monday and had to review the call because we had specific requirements and reports for all fatality calls. And to hear her hysteria from the original 911 call after being on scene and seeing the build up of her learning what was going on was just heartbreaking. That call will always live with me and is one of the biggest reason I would never consider that as a way out of problems personally. I saw what it really does to family members (as I am sure most of us have in this industry).
(Funny) I’m not a dispatcher, firefighter or EMT. I’m just a mom. I was downstairs switching over my laundry and bringing up the load that needed to be folded. I left my phone upstairs in the living room where my 4yo son and I were hanging out. When I got back upstairs I couldn’t find him. I called out for him. I went in his room. He was in his closet with the door closed on my phone with 911. He was just having a random conversation with the dispatcher. I took the phone and apologized. I felt bad for him wasting their time and embarrassed that I let it happen. I’m glad he is able to call. We’ve had several talks since then about the proper time to call 911. He’s 6 now and it hasn’t happened again
This may actually be a blessing. Obviously none of us wants to waste the time of a valuable 911 operator but I’m glad your son knows how to make the call. I had a huge Grand Mal / Tonic Clonic seizure (the kind you see on tv where someone is flailing about on the ground for minutes) while I was home alone with my 2 sons. The oldest was 8 at the time. He called 911 thank goodness, he stayed calm, gave the 911 operator our address, unlocked the front door, put the dog in another room and tried to keep his 5 year old brother calm until help arrived. I’ve never been prouder of him but it breaks my heart that he had to go through it. Unfortunately it wasn’t the last time he had to call 911 because of witnessing me seize. My husband died from sudden death in epilepsy driving home from work and my son who is now 13 checks on me constantly even though I’ve been stable on my meds and seizure free for awhile now thank goodness. Poor kid has had to grow up way too fast. Edited for grammar
Not a dispatcher but I live close to where mass shooter Gabriel Wortman was killed by police. Some of the 911 calls and transcripts were released and one of them was from the children of Wortman’s first victims. They said something like “a crazy man killed my mom and dad” and that they escaped the house but he was basically hunting them. Absolutely heartbreaking. It’s been a little over 4 years since the shootings but I’m pretty sure every Nova Scotian remembers that day vividly. I know I do.
Not call take, but I responded to a call where Dad was showing off his new shotgun at his son's graduation party. Didn't realize it was loaded and shot his son through the chest at close range and killed him. Even the call notes coming through were brutal, major respect to the call take keeping their cool on that one.
Dad claimed to have found their 5 year old unresponsive in th bedroom. I started everyone that way and was trying to give dad CPR instructions, but he kept shouting "where are they? Im gonna sue all of you for not being here!" I said "SIR, I am trying to give you CPR instructions are you even doing them?" Silence then "Yeah I'm doing them but I'm gonna sue you because no one is here yet!" I could clearly tell he wasn't doing CPR. I put in the call notes everything I was hearing and my suspicion. Officers were on scene in under 2 minutes. Within 30 seconds of being on scene they arrested the dad. Kid had been dead for hours. Dad beat the crap put of the kid then called 911 when he realized he wasn't breathing. Last I heard on the case, dad was taking some kind of plea deal so I didn't have to be subpoenaed but I really hope that horrible man is treated just how he treated that child in prison.
I had a lady once call 911 because she was annoyed with people at a residence. I asked her location and her response was “I can’t tell you that.” And I asked her why not and she told me “because I’m trespassed from here.” 😧
The one that will never leave my head. I was working city radio and could see from my cubby to where one of the call taker positions. The call taker sent me a Rape in Progress call with zero info on it. Then he stands up looks me in the eye, points at me and mouths the words "its you!". I started scrambling a response. I knew what he meant. I had a lot of experience already when I started at this agency, but I still had to go through their dispatch academy. When we got to the section on taking calls, they said I could play the part of the caller and gave me a script bassed off a real call. As a rape survivor myself, it wasn't hard to get into the mindset. This call taker had gotten me to take his first call from. I played it for hard core reality, and afterwards the rest of the class was so shaken up they had to all take a break. He later said the 911 caller, didn't speak, she just gasped and cried and he said it sounded just like the start of practice call he took from me. Unfortunately, that call really messed him up and he quit a few months later. But I still remember the look on his face and the way he pointed at me saying "it's you." Yes, he took at guess at the call, but he was right at what was happening.
Not me, but my brother was a first responder, however this was his off duty day and he came upon an accident where the driver was impaled in the chest by the windshield pylon (jeep). He could not do anything to help and he knew the guy wouldn’t survive. The guy knew it too and spent his last few minutes talking to my brother and giving him messages to pass on to his wife and each child. My brother said that was harder than any call he’d had, partly because the guy appeared to be his age (young). Finally the EMTs showed up and, before they started working on him the guy reached his hand out to my brother, shook it, and said… “Thanks for staying with me.” As soon as they cut him from the car he passed.
As an ER nurse back in the 80’s I have seen some terrible things . In the age before trauma centers my small city hospital was ground zero for everything in a 50 mile radius. I have seen a mennonite family come in with 3 over come and drowned in cow run off pits . My first fatality was a 15 month old drowning victim in the family pond during a cookout. I will never get over the tiny little sandal on his foot . I had to notify a nurse on the med surg floor that her beautiful 19 year old son died in a single car mva without a scratch on him . I had to repeatedly tell a girl injured in an mva that everything was going to be alright when I knew her best friend was dying in the next room . My ER doctor had to go out and pronounce a girl in the back of an ambulance that had been struck by a train , about 2 hours later a state trooper brought in a Fays Drugstore bag and asked me if I needed a hand … dark humor at its best .
Found out that a guy I delivered no-send (As in, we're not sending an ambulance to) killed his wife and two daughters the morning afterwards. I always wonder what would have happened if we did send an ambulance; he'd called for a wound infection but failed to say he was struggling with his mental health. It haunts me how peaceful of a call it was, and the fact I was almost certainly the only person to ever hear him and one of his daughters who isn't now dead.
Not a dispatcher— but I am someone who is frequently in situations where I need to call 911. It’s pure luck at this point. Only 1 has haunted me so far: I was driving back to my house from my parents house around 10:30pm on a major highway. On the side of the highway I see a woman clutching her ~5-7yr old son and waving her phone light like crazy. My windows were up but I could hear her wailing despite the noise of the cars. I didn’t feel comfortable stopping because it was dark and I was a woman traveling alone. I called 911 and (because it’s not my first rodeo) asked if they had received any other calls regarding the incident and they said no. The dispatcher told me that I did everything right by NOT stopping. The next day, news report came out that it was a family of three (mom/dad/son) walking along the road and the father was hit and the car drove out. Report made it sound like he died instantly. I am trained in ALS and BLS so sometimes I still wonder if I could have saved him if I stopped. My heart breaks for this family.
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I am so unbelievably sorry. I have ptsd from my mothers sudden death, I hope you are able to speak to someone about the extreme trauma you experienced 💜
My sister and cousin were stabbed to death. I collapsed
I took one that made national news a while back…Mom killed her son and dog via decapitation. Still messes with my head sometimes just thinking about it.
Almost 2 months ago volunteering with one of the FD’s I’m at,got a call from 911 for a missing 3yr old(mind you we live on a well populated lake) I went enroute with our thermal drone to assist in a search for the missing child(apart of a SAR drone program). Halfway enroute,upgraded to child found under pier in water unresponsive,father jumped in and pulled out his daughter,cpr in progress……It was my first ever pediatric arrest,some calls just stick with you forever and I’ll never forgot that father there the entire time clinging to his daughter in pure distraught that his little child got away and drowned….airmed’d her to the hospital where they called it! SO was able to obtain near by cameras from a house where we learned that she had been playing outside unsupervised and fell into the river for about 25-30mins before she was found…I instantly thought that she would be in the river and that was the first place I was going to search when I got on scene! Everytime I drive by that house on the way home I think about them🙏🏼..