That's not how reality works

[smileyeagle1021]

Okay, I understand that in an emergency, you aren't thinking straight...
But for the love of God, if you don't tell your relay operator where you are, we CAN'T dial 911 for you.
If we were to just "dear God dial 911 now" as you instructed you would be connected to the Salt Lake Valley Public Safety dispatch center... unless you happen to be in the Salt Lake Valley, that service will be of absolutely zero use to you.up front
Oh, and when we say we need information to properly route your call, we don't mean we want the information to give to the dispatcher when they answer, we quite literally mean to properly route your call.
And yes, I know you see your hearing friends whipping out their cell phones and dialing 911 and it automatically routing to the nearest 911 center... that's because the cell towers they are connected to are programmed to route their calls to the right center... we don't have that ability over a mobile web connection. So we have to do this the old fashioned way.
Oh, by the way, dear caller last night, had you just given me the information we needed up front rather than arguing how urgent it was that I just dial 911 (despite that routing you to a dispatch center that it turns out is two time zones away from where you need), we would have been finished with the call in less time than it took me to locate the proper emergency center... way to go.

[lineswine]

*passes cookies & hot drink* Here mate, it looks like you could do with these...& a looong break, of course.

[XCashier]

Reminds me of this story. Some people panic so badly in emergencies that they cannot listen to even the clearest, most concise instructions. That must be frustrating dealing with someone like that; even more so because they're most likely not doing it on purpose (unlike a SC) so you feel guilty for feeling frustrated!

[Megg]

Woah, that one must have been before my time or something. Thank you, XCashier. My head exploded, but thank you, it was well worth it!

[MoonCat]

Yeah, that story was before I signed up, too. HOLY CRAP that was dumb. We actually had a case here a year or so ago where a girl called 911 and just kept yelling that she needed help. The dispatcher didn't know if she needed firemen or cops and couldn't get her to even give her address (she called on a cell phone & they couldn't track it). Two people died, and last I heard the family was saying it was the dispatcher's fault. I felt very bad for the family but I don't see how it's the dispatcher's fault when he didn't know where she was or what was happening.

[underemployeed]

Yeah, that story was before I signed up, too. HOLY CRAP that was dumb. We actually had a case here a year or so ago where a girl called 911 and just kept yelling that she needed help. The dispatcher didn't know if she needed firemen or cops and couldn't get her to even give her address (she called on a cell phone & they couldn't track it). Two people died, and last I heard the family was saying it was the dispatcher's fault. I felt very bad for the family but I don't see how it's the dispatcher's fault when he didn't know where she was or what was happening.

You have to keep in mind most people are clueless in general and when you add panic they do not think logically. When your adrenaline is pumping it can be hard to think straight, some people can remain calm and know they need to relay critical information others can't.

I can't remember if it was a local news story or a national one where a little kid (5-8ish yr old) saved his mom/grandmothers life because she collapsed and the kid called 911 and was able to get help, many adults can't manage that when something goes wrong.

As far as that old story, I would have lost my job because after that many attempts I would have congratulated the caller for being in the running for a darwin award.

Once at our store we had some people stop in and ask for directions to the hospital because there friend wasn't feeling well, meaning chest pains, trouble breathing that lapsed into unresponsiveness. Manager was like "You don't need directions you need 911 NOW", so a coworker called.... I think the ems was shocked at how they didn't want to make a fuss.

Adding to what I said earlier, most people generally have no idea where they are, making them unable to even give the city name, road name, etc, if something happens they better hope 911 can figure it out without assistance. On a road trip with my gf, she was shocked for the most part I knew we were traveling west on Rt whatever and the last mile marker i remember was 23, granted even if I wasn't paying attention I know how to find coords of my gps.

[Imogene]

Manager was like "You don't need directions you need 911 NOW", so a coworker called.... I think the ems was shocked at how they didn't want to make a fuss.

I had a roommate for a while who, one night, told me she was having what sounded like stroke symptoms. I told her, basically, "We need to get you to the hospital."
Her response? "Call them first to make sure it really is a stroke..."
WHAT? But I did, and the lady who answered basically repeated what I'd said, get her to a hospital so they can check it out...
I did eventually manage to get her to the hospital where the other roommate worked... and they brought her in for two days, then released her after finding nothing wrong.
And then she started creating new symptoms... like just randomly freezing in the middle of whatever she was doing, and not responding to us talking to her. Two hospital admittances later, the attending admits they don't know what's wrong, but something is definitely wrong with her. That hospital does her no good, though, and they release her again. The fourth hospital finally takes a stab in the dark and decides she has vertigo, and medicates her for it, and she stops exhibiting any sort of signs.

She and I butted heads often enough about her going to the hospital. My take? "You're complaining of stroke symptoms to someone who HAD a stroke, and gets routinely depressed about life." Her position? "Hospitals cost money I don't have."

[Raveni]

Once at our store we had some people stop in and ask for directions to the hospital because there friend wasn't feeling well, meaning chest pains, trouble breathing that lapsed into unresponsiveness. Manager was like "You don't need directions you need 911 NOW", so a coworker called.... I think the ems was shocked at how they didn't want to make a fuss.

They shouldn't be shocked... A lot of people are too worried about the ambulance bill to be able to make the connection that their loved one might die if they don't get help asap.

[underemployeed]

They shouldn't be shocked... A lot of people are too worried about the ambulance bill to be able to make the connection that their loved one might die if they don't get help asap.

This is why I found a loophole to stay on my dads insurance because im better off working part time than full time where I would end up losing his insurance. Co worker ended up in hospital before they were willing to make her full time, ended up costing $2000 for one treatment plus all the other bills associated with that. Which is easily what we make in 2 months.

[MoonCat]

Juwl, I've had problems with vertigo, and I've never frozen in place and been unable to respond to others while experiencing that. That diagnosis sounds odd to me, although if the treatment worked, I guess it's all good. Just confusing.

[TheSHAD0W]

This is IMO something which needs rectification. A frantic caller might not be able to tell you their location, or not quickly enough.

Does your service run over the internet, or phone lines? (Or both?) Some minor and inexpensive changes to the service infrastructure would allow for faster access to emergency services.

[underemployeed]

Does your service run over the internet, or phone lines? (Or both?) Some minor and inexpensive changes to the service infrastructure would allow for faster access to emergency services.

If the telecommunications companies are anything like my boss. It doesn't matter if you need to spend $1, for the potential of making 5 million dollars..... it is, do we really need to spend another dollar I mean we DO have a budget to keep (that is consistently under at the cost of not providing us more than 1 semi-working pen at a time. It is sad companies don't want to invest even a little bit of money to get significant improvements unless they are forced to.

Also, I'm sure some of the fees charges by the phone companies were slated to go to improvements such as your suggesting. I know the cable companies have certain similar fees but never use them for their intended purpose then in I believe north carolina one of the communities rolled out a cheap city wide broadband / wifi network that the major cable comapny couldn't compete with and sued based on a monopoly clause or the inability to compete.... The rest will be for a fratching post in the future.

[smileyeagle1021]

Does your service run over the internet, or phone lines? (Or both?) Some minor and inexpensive changes to the service infrastructure would allow for faster access to emergency services.

Umm, not so inexpensive or necessarily minor... if we are talking about a physical internet connection maybe, but a mobile web connection is no easy walk in the park, we are talking about tracking a web connection being tracked on a cell phone... something which despite what CSI would have us believe is not that easy or overly accurate.

[TheSHAD0W]

Umm, not so inexpensive or necessarily minor... if we are talking about a physical internet connection maybe, but a mobile web connection is no easy walk in the park, we are talking about tracking a web connection being tracked on a cell phone... something which despite what CSI would have us believe is not that easy or overly accurate.

I'm pretty sure the dynamically assigned IP numbers are fairly area-specific, so you might be able to get a look-up table which would let you direct the call to the correct location.

I'm not familiar with the hardware/software involved, but if it's all similar to Verizon's wireless system, then you might be able to get the device to send an SMS message to 911 with a code identifying the call. This would allow the local 911 service to track the location, and then they could call in to you with the code number and you'd be able to connect them with the caller.

[HawaiianShirts]

And yes, I know you see your hearing friends whipping out their cell phones and dialing 911 and it automatically routing to the nearest 911 center... that's because the cell towers they are connected to are programmed to route their calls to the right center... we don't have that ability over a mobile web connection. So we have to do this the old fashioned way.

I admit I may have missed something on this one, but if this deaf "caller" is watching his friends use their cell phones to dial 911, why does he need to call, too? Does he have some astoundingly important bit of information about what's going down that ONLY HE can provide to the dispatchers and/or emergency personnel?