DEL.ICIO.USGrady official says operator a 'scapegoat'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/07/08
Police and paramedics responding Saturday to a Johns Creek woman in distress struggled for nearly half an hour to keep her alive until an ambulance arrived, according to Johns Creek police officers.
The delay in responding to the dying woman's 911 call was even greater than Fulton County Emergency Management officials initially reported, according to a police report released Wednesday.
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The Johns Creek police officer who worked to revive the woman while waiting on an ambulance, said he was frustrated by the series of mistakes leading up to her death.
Darlene Dukes, 39, died from a blood clot in her lungs. The mother of two boys, ages 15 and 11, was at home alone when she began to feel ill and called Fulton 911.
Dukes was in respiratory distress but was able to tell the 911 operator the name of her street and stayed on the line for 18 minutes before she fell silent.
The first ambulance Fulton County dispatchers sent to help Dukes was sent to a wrong address inside Atlanta city limits, nearly 28 miles away. By the time the error was discovered and emergency workers redirected, Dukes had fallen silent on the phone.
The problem with Dukes' call was discovered when an operator in Grady Memorial Hospital's emergency call center "Googled the name of the apartments and figured they were... not in southwest Atlanta," said Eric Ossman, the medical director for Grady ambulance service. Grady was dispatched in error the first time.
Fulton officials said the operator misheard the street name as Dukes struggled to speak, sending rescue crews to Wells Street in Atlanta rather than Dukes' Wales Street address in Johns Creek north of Atlanta.
Fulton's 911 director Alfred "Rocky" Moore said Tuesday that the operator was fired because she should have noticed the call came from a cell tower in north Fulton, not Atlanta.
Moore did not return phone calls Wednesday and refused to talk to a reporter in person.
Dukes called Fulton County 911 for help just after 1 p.m. Saturday, but due to the mix-up, the first emergency responders didn't arrive until about 1:39, according to police records. An ambulance arrived just after 2 p.m., and Dukes didn't reach Emory Johns Creek Hospital until 2:18 p.m., according to police reports.
Johns Creek police Cpl. James Harris raised a red flag after Dukes died at 3:01 p.m., noting the discrepancies in the response time.
"I saw what had happened, and said, 'Not on my watch,' " the 17-year law enforcement veteran said Wednesday.
Harris was the second officer to arrive at her home 25 minutes after she placed her call.
They found Dukes not breathing and began administering CPR while Harris, a fellow officer, and Fulton County Fire paramedics also at the scene called repeatedly for an ambulance.
"The firemen had already been asking for an ETA," with no response, Harris said.
When he tried to get help on his police radio, he was told the nearest ambulance was about 13 minutes away.
"I said, 'That's not good enough! We've got a woman in full arrest,'" Harris said.
Twice before the ambulance arrived, Dukes' heart began beating again, but she kept slipping away.
Hours after Dukes died Saturday, Harris requested records from Fulton Emergency Management Agency to learn more about what led up to the incident.
When Fulton EMA refused, he filed a written request for the audiotape of her call to 911 and transcripts, both of which are public records. He was still waiting for them on Wednesday night.
"It's just hard to wrap my mind around it," Harris said. "That you have the possibility to do some good for somebody and you just can't because of somebody else's errors."
But Ossman, with Grady's ambulance service, said Wednesday that one operator should not be blamed for Dukes' death.
Ossman said Dukes' death is an indictment on an emergency call center that has long suffered mismanagement, short staffing and inadequate training.
Fulton, he said, was trying to make the fired operator the "scapegoat."
"Unfortunately, this poor woman has been terminated," he said. "She has been categorized as being at the root of all this. In reality, these issues were happening in the communications center at Fulton County long before this woman. This is not about one bad employee. ... This one poor woman is not responsible for all this."
The Saturday afternoon distress call from Dukes came to the county's emergency center, bouncing off a cellphone tower outside Atlanta, yet the operator dispatched a Grady ambulance. Grady only answers ambulance calls inside Atlanta while Rural/Metro Ambulance handles calls north and south of the city.
"The phone [call] hit a cell tower that was 27 miles away from the address that they dispatched Grady EMS and [Atlanta] fire [department] to," said Ossman.
In a prepared statement, Moore said, "We want the citizens to understand and be confident in the 911 system. Our employees are trained properly. They answer millions of calls a year."
Dukes' family, in Atlanta from New York on Tuesday, were angry to learn of the 911 delay from reporters rather than from the county.
When she learned of the delay, mother Ida Dukes seemed stunned. "Her sons are being destroyed by their mother's death. Something went wrong and I'd like to find out what."
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Comments
By Another Former 911 Dispatcher
Aug 12, 2008 8:14 PM | Link to this
Did Anyone See the Retired 911 Dispatcher on WSB TV Tonight
By Another Former 911 Dispatcher
Aug 12, 2008 8:05 PM | Link to this
Did Anyone See the Retired 911 Dispatcher on WSB TV Tonight
By retired Fire/EMS Dispatcher
Aug 11, 2008 11:01 PM | Link to this
Seems to me a department the size of fulton in a major metro area is asking for trouble not having either more personell,and radio operators not answering the phones during busy periods at least.
Our Dispatch consoles have recorders built in that allows calltakers and dispatchers to replay traffic and calls, so if someone was confused as to the address, they could replay the call to get the information, also if a situation like this occured we would have sent units to both addresses just to be safe.
Also Newer Cellphone Technology is allwing 911 operators to get a sort of gps like fix on the callers location, sounds like fulton needs this.
By Another Fulton County Dispatcher
Aug 10, 2008 11:08 AM | Link to this
Now "Truth" come on, I agree with some of the things you are saying, but maybe us so called former fulton co dispatcher left because we was not only tired from being held over every night but we were also tired of the bs and way things was run up there. Obviously you haven't been there long or you like working in such an environment. The culture in that place sucks! I think you are just trying to sugarcoat the this horrible situation because you need to keep your job! You and I both know of all the "things" that go on in that center that has nothing to do with "flaws all over the field of EMERGENCY SERVICES" PLEASE! Now how is that for TRUTH!!!!! ALWAYS
By Star1954
Aug 9, 2008 10:28 PM | Link to this
I agree that the dispatcher should not have been blame, but in alot of cases from higher up, someone has to go.
In such an emergency, I can see where "Wells", and "Wales", could be mis-underst
ood, especially in an emergency.
What I don't understand is how from Street, to Drive, was misunderstood. And why it took so long to get an ambulance there.
Such a sad situation, that needs to be further investigated.
My prayers to her family and children.
By Former Dispatcher
Aug 9, 2008 6:16 PM | Link to this
I agree with Truth.now lets discuss Grady Ambulance service it sucks.Grady has never had enough ambulances to service such a large metropolitan area. always holding calls. that's right while you were lying there sick;guess what so was your call for help.So for Dr. Ossman to have the audacity to say that fulton911
delayed response times when they were associated w/them is crazy!! tell us Dr.Ossman how can any agency delay your Grady ambulances response times? Your employees are the ones driving.Rural Metro provides ambulance service to all of unincorporated fulton co and your times suck aswell.You just hanging on by a thread to your contact. spreading all of your what; maybe 20 ambulances between south fulton and the new cities up north. Oh did anyone else catch that officer James Harris story has changed multiple times? Buddy either you got there 1st or you got there 2nd, did you actually start cpr? i question that. most officers don't first respond to medical calls unless someone's shot,stabbed or maybe hit by a vehicle. maybe if you stopped pulling people over just for driving, you could maybe get to important calls sooner. let's be real here; the blogger that blamed fulton911 for not knowing where the park was doing the '96 games; that was an ATLANTA 911 operator not a fulton911 operator. lesson of the day fulton911 only handles unincorporated fulton county. I have another question to make you think? even if Rual Metro wasn't given the call involving Ms.Dukes at the onset; where the hell were they coming from? this is typical with them though, always requesting exception reports for delayed response times if i remember correctly rural metro has 8mins to respond to calls;what a joke; they hardly ever met those;requesting fire to be started because they're delayed. it's called not having ambulance drivers who know where they're going and not having enough trucks to respond. I can't believe that johns creek,roswell,milton or alpharetta would even consider still using them. rural metro as well as grady would do anything fudge times and lie just to keep those multi-millon dollar contracts. WAKE UP! Both ambulance services are HORRIBLE; with inadequate equipment(ambulances)that are always breaking down some even patient loaded now investigate that. This is from someone who know's first hand. They LIE and will continue to do so all for the sake of the dollar.
By Truth
Aug 8, 2008 9:03 PM | Link to this
more "TRUTH"....please know what i'm trying to convey to the public is there are flaws all over the field of EMERGENCY
SERVICES...yes there are things that could have possibly saved her life..yes ms conteh could have gone futher to investigate her exact location..for other agencies to say Fulton 911 is a joke is almost funny...if it wasn't for fulton 911 at times half of you that have been involved in accidents wouldn't have gotten help..almost all of you think that fulton is the city of atlanta...who most of you really are located at the time of your incident..KNOW WHERE YOU ARE...use a landline if possible,you can't rely on a cellphone to provide your location.
NOW..let's not forget the so called former 911 Dispatchers:there's a reason your you being former. just accept the responsibility for what you did that may have caused your dismissal.don't place the blame on someone else for your short comings. I agree that some things need to be changed at Fulton and that's true across the board at all Emergency Services Departments inside the metropolitan atlanta area. INFECT TRUTH !!!! Always
By Truth
Aug 8, 2008 8:31 PM | Link to this
First of all let's start with the truth..what JOB doen't have some problems.
second we're going to explore something some of you know nothing about "TRUTH"...
DID YOU KNOW that half of the so called problems that Fulton is being hammered for comes from other so called incorporated cities...yes that's right Atlanta City, East Point, College Park, Faiburn (pls don't forget them),Cobb, Roswell and Alpharetta...all whom have had problems with jurisdictional boundarie...Did you know 99.9% of the time anytime someone calls 911 and reaches a call center..just the mention of "i'm in fulton co....they immediatly assume it's on fulton co 911..and transfers the call WITHOUT VERIFYING FIRST? What the public hasn't been told that when other cities flat out REFUSE to go or handle calls fulton 911 sends responders...Atlanta needs to learn what's actually inside the city...along w/increasing your response times. something everyone who's ever had to deal with a wreck, theft knows you can wait for hours and hours for police. Cobb when you hear fulton, you also need to verify aswell as East Point, Fairburn oh and almost forgot Union City. The newly formed cities of Sandy Springs huh what a joke...Johns Creek isn't any better nor is the the City of Milton...you all rushed to incoroporate why...not because you really wanted to become cities...but because you all thought monies were going to other ends of north fulton co...sandy springs thought that more money was going to johns creek and milton areas and vise versa your sad...your police depts and city officals are no better ie sandy springs...everyone wants to be as chief...and grady ambulances had horrible response times even prior to forming your own dispatch center...and guess what nothings changed; you didn't get rid of fulton they got rid of you..grady ambulances has always used atl city not fulton county..so for this Dr spokesperson to say otherwise he needs to check his own center first.
By another pissed citizen
Aug 8, 2008 4:36 PM | Link to this
This situation is similar to all of the other crazy issues in this county. It is out growing its roads, water supply, 911 system, you name it. Everything that has been discussed here should be looked into and implemented. Also, splitting fulton county into two counties (fulton and milton) could ease the burden on the 911 system. I have called 911 in alpharetta/johns creek only to have forsyth county answer the phone and transfer me around until I could finally get someone to respond. The paramedic's entry is also correct, citizens need to stop calling 911 for hangnails, idiotic disputes, etc. He was also correct in saying that it is a waste of breath because the idiots running the show are only looking after the bottom line. So rather than wasting anymore more breath (words), I would like to offer my condolences to the family of Ms. Dukes. Long after we have all moved on with our lives, there will be two young boys growing up without a mother, May the lord be with her, her boys, her family and may a good lawyer make sure that they are awarded something out of this ridiculous tragedy.
Lastly, I also feel that Ms. Conteh is a scapegoat, but I also feel that she was extremely cold. You cant blame training when I was able to do a damn google search and find this location faster than she was and Im in insurance!!!
By modu
Aug 8, 2008 3:50 PM | Link to this
This story has a lot of errors, as revealed by the now released 911 call. Ms. Dukes did not fall silent after 18 minutes, it was about 5 minutes after she called. No police had arrived at that time. Also she didn't live on Wales Street, she lived on Wales Drive. Listen to the call here on the ajc website, but only if you can handle hearing someone dying. It's very sad and difficult to listen to.
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