Multimillion-Dollar Suit Filed After Boy's 911 Call Ignored

[deadparrot]

DETROIT -- A prominent lawyer filed a multimillion-dollar, wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of the family of a Detroit boy who called 911 to get help for his mother, but was denied because the operator thought the call was a prank.

The woman's young son was unable to convince a 911 operator his mother needed help.

Geoffrey Fieger said 46-year-old Sherrill Turner, who had an enlarged heart, would have survived if help had been sent immediately.

In the lawsuit filed on behalf of the Turner family Monday, Robert and his sister -- and now guardian -- Delaina Patterson, were present. Fieger said that Robert, 6, "did exactly what he had been taught to do by his mother."

http://www.nbc5.com/news/8592836/detail.html?rss=chi&psp=nationalnews

[Punkingal]

1. I knew it would be Fieger...

And good for him. That 911 operator should go to jail. What a horrible tragedy, and I feel so sorry for that little boy, who tried to get help for his mom.:cry:

[Beaverhausen]

2. Unfrickin' believable

Do these operators get any training at all?

[BattyDem]

3. The operator demanded to speak to an adult!

:wtf:

Mommy's unconscious on the floor, you ass! :grr:

What I don't get is this ...
Even if the operator thought there was a possibility that it was a prank, why not err on the side of caution and send help. :shrug:

[uncle ray]

7. i believe it's the LAW to err on the side of caution.

once there was a non-emergency 911 call from my house, not exactly a prank call, but no help was needed, party hijinks i guess. the 911 operator called back, and i, the homeowner, stated that there was no emergency, no help was needed, someone was just messing with the phone, police were still dispatched.

[rocktivity]

13. I once dialed 911 meaning to dial 411

I immediately explained my error, apologized and hung up. They called me right back.

:headbang:
rocknation

[newswolf56]

4. In a similar case, it was obvious racism. The 911 operator was white,

the caller a black child. (Sorry don't remember where: Cincinnati maybe, and four or five years ago.)

Racism or not, one of the things that will come out in this case is the vicious economic discrimination inherent in the 911 system: for example in Washington state cities, 911 operators are not allowed to dispatch shots-fired responses to "bad" neighborhoods -- that is, lower-income neighborhoods -- unless there are at least three separate telephone complaints.

[superconnected]

5. so very sad.

[xxqqqzme]

6. two places now unsafe for women

Detroit & South Dakota

[fujiyama]

9. Detroit

is just unsafe for everybody!

[susanna]

11. Interesting.

I live here, and it seems fine to me. Of course, I have never had a heart incident and a child to call 911 for me. So I guess I must be one of the lucky ones. :shrug:

That said, the 911 operator in this case needs to find a new line of work. Like an earlier poster said, better safe than sorry; send help just in case.

But then it's easy to laugh at geographic regions not your own.

[goclark]

12. I agree

The little boy was a heart breaker and the event was horrible.

[hotforteacher]

8. Absolutely infuriating.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that this happened, unfortunately.

I live in the Twin Cities and we see this kind of thing happen all the time in my neighborhood, as well as in many others which are heavily populated by minorities.

Two years ago, on the Fourth of July, about 25 youth (16-25 years of age) converged on the street right in front of our house with 2"x4"s in hand ready to throw down (there are Blood issues around here). After calling 911 myself, and calling my neighbor, we ascertained that approximately six individual people had called 911 regarding this incident within 5 minutes.

You know what happened?

The police showed up about 20 minutes later, and when asked why nobody bothered showing up earlier (there is a permanent cop car placed on corner about 2 blocks from here) he actually had the nuts to give my neighbor, a very lovely, well-spoken Kenyan-born woman the "Hand" and basically told her to mind her own fucking business.

I have called 911 at least six times around here over the last two years for some fairly heinous crap (domestic abuse and the like) and not ONCE has a cop showed up in less than 20 minutes...and half of the time they do not bother showing up at all. And yeah, there is a cop-shop a half a click away from here. Gotta love institutionalized racism.

[kestrel91316]

10. I don't know which situation is worse, yours or mine..............

here I am in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, and as a business owner I have had to call the police on rather urgent matters a few times over the years. I am white, and my office is on the main drag in a very white area. It is COMPLETELY impossible to get LAPD to show up in under an hour, no matter the day or time. I had to call them once when a door-to-door solicitor creep struck me, and they STILL took over an hour, and that was an assault, with the party still within sight when I called.

The poorer neighborhoods with the minorities get all the cops. They can't be bothered to "serve" us. But I think the poor folks get shafted the same with response times.

[saigon68]

14. The white cops used to call their night sticks

"Nigger Knockers"

http://www.laweekly.com/stage/theater/town-without-pity/12934/