Mother dies as boy's emergency call dismissed as prank...

[Luba]

from "The Sydney Morning Herald"

A lawyer said he planned a lawsuit over the death of a woman whose young son called 911 to report she had collapsed, only to be told he should not be playing on the phone.

The lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, best known for defending the assisted suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian, appeared on NBC television on Sunday with the boy, Robert Turner, who turned six last month.

Mr. Fieger said the boy's mother, Sherrill Turner, who had an enlarged heart, would have survived if help had been sent immediately.

The boy recounted his conversation with the 911 operator.

"She thought I was playing on the phone," he said.

After his mother collapsed in February, Robert placed two calls to 911. In the first call, about 6pm, he told an operator his mother had passed out, but the operator asked to speak with an adult. When he called back about three hours later, an operator told him, "You shouldn't be playing on the phone."

Police officers arrived after the second call but by then Ms. Turner, 46, was dead.

In a statement on Friday the Detroit police chief said it was important not to rush to judgement.

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I saw this story on the 6:00 p.m. News last night and was overwhelmed with sadness for the little boy

But after some thought wondered just how many crank calls the 911 people get that police respond to that are actually a hoax

In the end, I think this is a sad, sad story for everyone concerned...

[Vautrin]

That is sad.

The problem is you can't blame the boy or the mother for the fact that others make fake calls to the emergency services. And all means for discerning whether a call is fake or real, cannot be 100% accurate - as this case demonstrates.

It would make a case for only weeding out the obvious prank calls, and checking calls like these. The worst thing that could have happened, is that the services get there for nothing - but that does not mean that
a) if this was misuse of the alarm service, that the caller cannot be identified, nor charged with the bill
or b) that nothing was the matter (think diabetes for instance).

In the best case, they would save a life.

We can't expect a six-year old kid to be able to diagnose what is wrong with a person. Nor that a six-year old will be able to collect an adult (mind you, beware of strangers!), to get to the phone, and make the call. What is the kid supposed to do? Get a car, and drive to grandma?

[TKDLady]

I heard this story last night as well. It is very sad. I don't care how many crank calls they get, they should respond to everyone. They have ways of tracking who called and if it was a prank the person could be held responsible to pay for the emergency personnel time and effort. I can't imagine what the other side of the story could be that could excuse this.

[Star]

this is the first i hear about this story and it's terrible and i find it completely ignorant and disgusting how 911 handled it.

I agree, no matter how many prank calls they get, they always should respond, always, because, you just never know. Now this little boy has to live life without his mother because of incompetent people that answered those 911 calls. I feel so bad for this little boy. He tries to help his mom and nobody believes him. it's an outrage and I do hope that these people will be penalized for this big time!!

[Merika]

You hear so many stories about little kid's involved in wrecks, their moms giving birth, and all.....that it's hard to believe one STUPID operator didn't take the call seriously. How hard would it have been to dispatch the ambulance, fire department, or the police...just in case?

[Just__A__Thought]

I heard that too. It's not the first time something like that has happened, and I'm sure it won't be the last either.

Dispatching emergency services should be a given - even if its a crank call or a non-emergency.

Jay Leno had a segment recently on stupid 911 calls. one I remember is the woman who was absolutly panicking about her dog being stolen out of her car. She was frantic until she rememberd that she left the dog at home!

Another woman called 911 because she was afraid she would miss her plane and the cab company that she called had not shown up yet.

But a child calling - obviously it was a young child and even if they didn't believe the crisis and thought he was playing - send he police at least!