911 Dispatcher's Mistake Leads to Mother's Death

[Iolaus]

Well apparently from watching the news, the woman didn't take this call seriously because apparently 3 hours earlier, a prank call was made from the very street that this same kid lived on. But still, as said, every call should be taken seriously.

[Eusis]

Yay, someone else that needs a lesson drilled in their skulls. Naturally the prank caller's more innocent for not knowing osmething like this would happen, but should have police going over there and drilling a lesson into the asshole's head. :P

[ToxicTears]

I saw on the news earlier, about another complaint from another woman in the same area, from a year ago. Her husband shot her in the head, but it managed to miss enough for her to remain conscious and call 911, and the dispatch lady didn't believe her, and wouldn't send anyone. The woman had to call twice before someone finally came, and she has her own lawsuit pending.

They should respond to every single call, and if some are pranks, at least no one dies cause they didn't show  up.

[Eusis]

One of the big problem for prank callers is the fact they may take away help from those that really need it - but I figure trying to do something about a problem and accidentally miss a real one is better than brushing off someone you think is joking, and instead have them die.

[Dincrest]

Question for anyone who might know better.  Aren't some 911 call centers in certain areas specially trained to ask certain questions and such to truly determine whether or not a call is a prank call?  I can understand if prank calling is a problem in an area because a dispatch to a prank call takes away help from someone who could really be in trouble at that moment.  

It sounds as if, in these cases people mention, that the person receiving the call more or less used gut instinct to determine whether or not the call was fake, but since I don't have transcriptions of these conversations and don't know the "prank alert" questions that call centers ask to determine whether a call is legit or not, I can only speculate so much.  Perhaps the whole "prank screening" process is so arduous and time consuming that people just go "eh, fuck it" and assume the false-negative.