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Quotes tagged “911 Stories”

“I used to work as a 911 operator in a relatively large metro area. One night at about 3 am or so I answered a call from an elderly lady who said she didn't feel good. I tried to get more info about what was wrong — chest pain, trouble breathing, headache, is she diabetic, etc.

She gave me her address and phone number and said no one else was home but the front door was unlocked so they could come in. I toned the call out as 'general illness' and kept trying to get more details. No matter what else I asked about what was wrong, all she would say is 'I just don't feel good, can you send someone to help me?'

After a few minutes she said 'I'm gonna put the phone down for a minute, I need to go to the bathroom.' I tried to get her to stay on the line with me, told her she can do whatever she needs to get ready but I'd like to be able to stay in contact in case there's a problem.

She said, 'I'm gonna put the phone down, I'll just be a minute.' And that was it. I stayed on the line and asked for her every so often but got no reply.

A couple minutes passed, then the fire department called on scene so I just disconnected and didn't think much about it. Told them the caller advised front door is unlocked and she was in the bathroom. A couple more minutes and the one of the firefighters called over the air with a weird tone and said:

'Dispatch...uh how exactly was this caller received?' I told them the call was first party from the patient's home phone approx 8 minutes ago. He didn't respond over the air, but called the desk from his cell phone (which usually only happens when something is going on that they don't want broadcasted since anyone can listen in on the radios).

On the phone he said 'Are you sure this wasn't a third party call from a family member or something?' I said 'negative, caller advised "I don't feel good" and said no one else was home, so to the best of my knowledge, the caller is the patient...have you made contact?'

He said 'Yeah, she was in the bathroom like you said, but she's probably been dead for about 12 hours. Cold to the touch, fully livid, full rigor, we're gonna need a deputy out here.'

Afterwards we pulled the tapes of the radio and phone calls and checked the time stamps, address, phone number, and went over everything a few times to see if I missed something. I called them back in the morning after the shift to see if they had anymore info, but they were just as weirded out as we were. The phone was still in the living room and the patient was dead in the bathroom.”

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Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

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