911 is the emergency number here in Canada if you’re unfamiliar. 112, 999, etc if you’re elsewhere IIRC.
Do you remember the first time you had to use it?
What were you thinking, feeling?
First time I had to use it in earnest I was working front end at a post office and there was a random guy doing maintenance behind me in the back area of the office. Barely said a word to him, he barely said a word to me. I was fairly busy and he seemed kinda gruff.
Bit later all of a sudden he taps me on the shoulder pretty aggressively, I turned and was getting ready to give him some not-polite words about touching me like that and how he better not damn well do that again but I stopped when I saw the look on his face.
He just says, “call 911.”
I look blankly at him, getting some mental whiplash, and just dumbly go, “what?”
Him, “I’m having a fucking heart-attack, CALL 911!”
That got through so I called them, gave them the info. He went back into the office and laid down.
I was a bit in shock myself and just looked at the customers in line in front of me and said to the woman, “he’s having a heart attack, sorry.”
Honestly think I could’ve handled the situation better, at least gone back and been more empathetic but I was caught between him, customers, and making sure I was visible so I could wave the paramedics to where they needed to go.
The post office there was tucked into the back corner and most of the store didn’t even know about it until I told them later that day.
Never heard anything after, no clue if the guy survived, or not. Didn’t see him again either way.
You?
Almost ran into a broken down car on the highway, two wheels still on the overtake lane. Night, crowded, raining to boot. After I got my heart out of my throat I gave them a ring. The operator probably saw my location, so the conversation went like:
Are you OK?
Yes, I was calling…
About a broken down car on highway XX?
Yes, almost ran into it.
You’re the 20th person to call. Emergency services are on the way.
Fastest mike in the West.
911 dispatcher here, it’s wild to me sometimes that sometimes that exactly thing happens, and other times something crazy goes on in a public place and we get exactly 1 call about it.
I had a lot of your sort of situation tonight, we had a lot of strong winds causing a lot of downed trees and power outages and such. At one point I answered probably 10 calls in a row for the same transformer sparking, then a call about something else, and then a few more calls about the same transformer.
It’s kind of fun sometimes because it sort of makes us look really on the ball to already have help started. It also makes us kind of feel like dicks because we’re kind of rushing people off the phone, but honestly after the first 2 or 3 calls there’s usually not too much anyone has to add to it, and we’re probably swamped with incoming calls that need to be answered.
I had one person call in downed wires tonight, got all the information I needed, phones were ringing off the hook, but they were getting really indignant because I “wasn’t letting them speak.”
And then there are times where there’s maybe an overturned vehicle on fire on a busy highway, and we get one call, and we sit there waiting for police and fire to get out there feeling like we’re being punk’d, because surely someone else must be seeing this, why hasn’t anyone else called? But sure enough, things are exactly like it was described. The bystander effect is real sometimes.
First of all, hats off to you and your colleagues, it’s a hell of a job and I’m really glad you’re doing it, and doing it well.
I remember that night I wasn’t even mad, just glad they were on the ball. As for the other effect, my thinking before dialling was “someone must have called this in already, but let’s make sure anyway”. Wouldn’t take much to land on the other side of that decision, especially if you just see the aftermath of an incident.
Merry Christmas!