911 audio: Ohio dispatcher keeps boy calm during emergency
Genau Nuosce says she tried to use her own parenting and dispatching skills to keep the boy at ease and focused until help arrived
By Phil Trexler
Akron Beacon Journal
AKRON, Ohio — Akron police are crediting a 911 dispatcher for keeping a 5-year-old boy calm while paramedics rushed to aid his unconscious mother and his crying infant brother.
Dispatcher Genau Nuosce and the boy speak almost casually during the eight-minute recorded phone call released by authorities on Wednesday. While waiting for help, the child is instructed how to prepare a bottle of formula to soothe the cries of his 2-month-old brother.
The mother, 30, was treated at Akron General Medical Center and subsequently arrested on child endangering and drug charges. Officers found syringes and a spoon they believe the mother used to inject the heroin into her veins.
Summit County Children Services workers removed the boys from the Weiser Avenue home following the Jan. 27 incident. They are now being kept with relatives, police said.
Nuosce, 34, and a mother of two, said Wednesday that most of the credit belongs to the boy and the paramedics. She said she tried to use her own parenting and dispatching skills to keep the boy at ease and focused until help arrived.
"The child was very, very smart," Nuosce said. "A lot of it can be attributed to him, his bravery and his course of action. He was very levelheaded, he understood directions. He was the best asset to the phone call because he knew what needed to be done."
Nuosce answered the boy's 911 call at about 11 p.m.
"Um, are you a doctor, 'cause my mom's on the floor sleeping, I can't wake her up," the boy said while sounds of his brother's cries filled the background.
Nuosce tells him she's no doctor.
"No honey, I'm going to get somebody out to you," she said.
He then tells Nuosce that he was awakened by his brother's loud crying and found his mother sleeping on the kitchen floor. He tells Nuosce that he thinks his brother is hungry.
"I can't make him a bottle, I don't know how," he said. "I'm so tired. I'm afraid I will have to stay up all night."
"Oh, honey, you're not going to stay up all night. We're going to get somebody to help you. You're being so brave right now. I'm so proud of you you're being a great helper."
The boy retrieves a bottle, but notices the formula is not properly blended with the water.
"It has stuff in it. It has formula. Somehow it didn't go the way it was supposed to," he said. "I was shaking it and it's supposed to make milk and it didn't."
Nuosce encourages the boy to keep shaking the bottle. Before he can feed the baby, firefighters arrived.
Police Capt. Daniel Zampelli said those in the department who listened to the call were taken aback by the boy's maturity. Nuosce and the boy, he said, performed perfectly together.
"She did a phenomenal job keeping the 5-year-old from panicking, trying different things to keep him occupied until paramedics and police got there," he said. "She stayed calm and because of her demeanor, it kept the boy calm.''
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