You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
The 911 call.
It came with a warning from the 911 center.
“Good luck. There’s not much you can understand on it.”
I double click on the file and begin listening.
They’re right.
It’s mumbling and crying and babbling.
It’s a shriek and pain.
It’s a wonder dispatchers are able to get help to the woman at all.
Just another night in shangri la when the switch board lights up.
“911, where’s your emergency?”
The woman is crying so loudly, so vehemently, the only thing that’s certain is something bad is happening.
“Mam. Mam. Calm down. Take a breath. We can’t understand what you are saying.”
The dispatcher shows calm as the woman breathes like a marathon runner into the speaker. Her words are frantic, she is a mess.
“Where are you mam?”
The woman has obviously experienced something. It’s so awful it’s leading the 6pm news.
Nobody wants to lead the 6pm news.
Have you ever seen puppies and koala bears lead the 6pm news?
nope.
6pm is a bad magnet.
If it bleeds it leads.
According to sheriff’s deputies, the caller’s boyfriend pulled into a gravel driveway, reached across her in the middle of a fight, opened the passenger door and literally kicked the 47 year old woman out of the vehicle.
He then proceeded to drive his Chevy S-10 over her leg while making his get-a-way.
The sheriff’s deputies will arrive and a BOLO will be put out for the suspect.
Meanwhile, the woman is flown by helicopter to the local trauma center. Her condition is unknown, though we are told it is not life threatening.
Rescue crews almost discount her pain and anguish.
I guess they have not had a truck drive over their leg recently.
The 911 operator handles the call with aplomb.
Just another day in the life of a dispatcher. Every time the phone rings, something bad is on the other end.
Every single time.
They have to be cool and calm and figure out mysteries, sometimes with only a wail and a frantic breath.
The dispatchers figure it out rolling help to the woman.
The boyfriend eventually turns himself in.
He is charged with serious felonies.
The woman will live.
How well she’ll walk is unknown.
Just another call on another day in the life of people we don’t think about till we need them.
Life’s Crazy™