By EMS1 Staff
BANGOR, Maine — Dispatchers are trained to handle emergency situations over the phone. But when one of their own suffered a stroke, dispatchers had to handle the incident in person.
Dispatcher Robert King was able to quickly recognize the signs of a stroke and had fellow colleagues rush to his aid.
“I sat up, and that’s when it hit,” King said. Fellow dispatchers realized King was suffering a medical emergency when he was unable to answer a call and after he told them, “I’m not joking.”
“It was a strange calm that came over me because, generally, we handle emergencies over the phone. We don’t really have to see them in our face,” dispatcher Shelly Yankowsky told WABI.
King was transported to the hospital and was eventually released. He is still working through some side effects of the stroke, but said he owes his life to his colleagues.