[LordKathen]

I think she should have at least been suspended for a time with no pay. Not sure what disipline they gave her, but she still works there. What do you think?



Botched 911 call led to man's death
By Tonya Maxwell
Aug. 15, 2003 11:05 p.m.
ASHEVILLE - A Buncombe County 911 dispatcher's mistake kept paramedics from reaching the victim of an apparent suicide for at least 37 minutes.

During that time, 45-year-old David Mathus lay in his mother's front yard as a neighbor held his hand, telling him to hang on because help was on the way.

"He said, `Buddy, I'm dying,'" Buddy Turbyfill said Thursday. "I said, `No, you're not. Everything will be fine.'"

Deputy Fire Marshal Mack Salley said Thursday that the unidentified dispatcher sent emergency crews to Briarcliff Drive on the south side of town - instead of Briarcliff Lane in West Asheville.

The dispatcher failed to follow procedure, Salley said. He was disciplined but is still a dispatcher with the county's Emergency Operating Center.

Binnie Mathus said her son had walked upstairs to his bedroom on July 10 then went outside to her front lawn. She heard a gunshot, looked out the window and saw him falling to the ground.

Mathus called 911 at 7:44 p.m., frantically telling the dispatcher her son had shot himself.

On the 911 tape, Mathus is hysterical but able to tell the dispatcher her address.

"Oh Lord, oh help us, "Mathus said to the dispatcher in a recording of the call.

Dispatcher: Ma'am, I cannot help you till you tell me what the problem is.

Mathus: I think my son's killed himself.

Dispatcher: OK. Slow down take a deep breath. What is your address?

Mathus: Please help.

Dispatcher: Ma'am I'm going to help you but you got to help me now ma'am. OK, what is your address?

Mathus: 15 Briarcliff Lane.

In sending help, the dispatcher made one mistake in a series of steps that are supposed follow the initial call.

When a 911 call comes from a residence into the Emergency Operating Center, the address and phone number are displayed on the telephone, Salley said. It is like caller identification, based on telephone records.

The dispatcher clicks a box on a computer monitor to transfer that information into the Computer Aided Dispatch system. That system was installed in March and does not yet have all information on Buncombe County roads, Salley said.

At that time, Briarcliff Lane was not in the system. The computer notified the dispatcher of that and asked if he meant Briarcliff Drive. The dispatcher indicated that Briarcliff Drive was the correct street.

That's where the dispatcher erred, Salley said. When the Computer Aided Dispatch system indicates it doesn't recognize a particular street, dispatchers are supposed to type the information into the old computer system, which has data on all Buncombe County streets.

The dispatcher sent an ambulance and the fire department to Briarcliff Drive, then transferred the call to Asheville police dispatchers.

There, one police dispatcher took Mathus' call while another used the computer address sent over from the county 911 call center to send officers to the home.

When police officers arrived at Briarcliff Drive, both the county 911 dispatcher and a police dispatcher realized the mistake and sent rescuers and officers to Briarcliff Lane.

By then, Binnie Mathus had called Turbyfill, her neighbor. His wife went inside with her, while Buddy Turbyfill held David Mathus' hand, trying to comfort him.

Blood was spilling from Mathus' chest, Turbyfill said.

Police arrived at 8:21 p.m., 37 minutes after the 911 call. Ambulance workers followed, loading David Mathus to take him to Mission St. Joseph's Health System at 8:29 p.m.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital, Turbyfill said. Doctors told the family the bullet had severed an artery and he bled to death.

"I don't know if he would have made it or not," Turbyfill said of the delay. "But he would have had a better chance of it if they would have got here sooner."

Binnie Mathus said she still cannot look at pictures of her son, who left behind three daughters, including a 2-year- old. The dispatcher never gave David a chance, she said.

"He made a big mistake. He let him lay down and bleed to death," she said.

Rob Thornbury, county personnel director, declined Friday to release the dispatcher's name.

The dispatcher did not identify himself on the 911 tape.

Salley said the man has been a good dispatcher in the three years he has worked for the county.

All Buncombe County roads and streets will be updated within the new system in two to three weeks, he added. It will complete a transfer that has been ongoing for several months.

Emergency rescuers have a goal of getting to a scene in nine minutes, Salley said. Dispatchers send rescuers on some 32,000 calls a year.

The dispatch to David Mathus' was a failure of how the protocol was used, not the protocol itself, he said.

"We are using the same protocol," he said. "It meets the needs and ensures the right locations are sent. This is one where the protocol was not followed. There is no other way to explain it. We are dealing with the issue to make sure this doesn't happen again."


Source: http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/news/40174