Copyright 2006 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
All Rights Reserved
By ANDY PARAS
The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
WALTERBORO, S.C. — John Creel’s call for help, polite but shaking with panic, was doomed in the first few seconds.
“Yes, ma’am, my name’s John Creel,” he tells a Colleton County sheriff’s dispatcher at 4:22 a.m. on June 12, 2005. “My wife. She quit breathing. 20908 Augusta Highway.”
“209 what?” the dispatcher says.
“Augusta Highway,” Creel says.
“209 Augusta Highway?”
“Yeah, please get somebody here. She’s got food in her mouth or something,” Creel says, pleading, “Please hurry.”
The error - dropping two digits from a five-digit address - had ambulances racing to the other side of the county more than 20 miles away.
Creel, constantly reassured by the dispatcher that help was coming, struggles to revive his wife until the moment ambulances arrive 36 minutes later. Elaine Creel, 62, died at the scene.
The Sheriff’s Office released a copy of the 32-minute tape to the public Tuesday after initially refusing a Freedom of Information Act request from The Post and Courier.
Together with several internal e-mails documenting calls delayed by dispatchers’ mistakes, also obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the materials raise questions about the reliability of the county’s 911 system.
An inspection of the tape also shows the dispatcher missed a clue, a nearby crossroad, five minutes into the conversation that could have signaled emergency crews were going to the wrong location.
It also raises the question of why the correct address wasn’t displayed on the dispatcher’s monitor. Officials familiar with the county’s 911 system say it should have because Creel made the call from a land phone line.
Colleton County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Ted Stanfield said officials think they know why the address didn’t show up on the screen but couldn’t comment until a lawsuit filed by Creel is resolved.
Sheriff George Malone declined to talk Wednesday about the Creel case because of the lawsuit. He said the technology is out of date, and he plans to update it through funds seized in drug arrests on Interstate 95.
Former Sheriff Allan Beach, who has been at odds with Malone since losing the election to him, said new technology was being installed when he left office.
Documents obtained by The Post and Courier show county Fire and Rescue personnel’s growing frustration with dispatchers’ errors since Malone took office in January 2005.
Fire and Rescue Director Barry McRoy, in a June letter to Malone obtained by The Post and Courier, asked for immediate action and called the delays “a disturbing trend.”
McRoy declined to comment for this story, but in the letter to Malone last year said the Creel case was the first involving a death.
Since the Creel case, an ambulance passed by a wreck with a man trapped in a car on I-95 while en route to a minor wreck. Dispatchers were unaware there were two accidents. The trapped man died.
In another incident, firefighters were dispatched to a house fire as many as seven minutes after deputies were. The house was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.
The copy of the 911 tape provided to the paper shows that Creel’s call was filled with miscommunications, though it apparently is missing four minutes of audio.
Neither Malone nor the Sheriff’s Office attorney could explain why four minutes are missing, other than to speculate that moments of silence were omitted by a voice-activated recorder during the dubbing process.
The Sheriff’s Office has offered The Post and Courier the opportunity to listen to the original recording today.
Elaine Creel wasn’t breathing when her husband called 911. Creel says her mouth appeared to be filled with food.
“Her mouth is full of fluid?” the dispatcher asks.
“Food.”
“Fluid?”
“Yeah.”
Two minutes into the conversation, the dispatcher asks him if he can do rescue breathing.
“I don’t think I can,” he says.
He tries to clear her airway. “I need some help,” he says five minutes into the conversation.
“I’ve got them on the way,” the dispatcher says.
He then tells the dispatcher that he lives right past state Highway 651. The dispatcher misses the clue and asks him what type of mobile home he has.
Nine minutes along, she asks Creel if he can lift his wife’s neck to open her mouth and put her on the floor.
Nearly two minutes later, she asks him if he can sweep his wife’s mouth to clear any obstructions.
At 11 minutes, Creel said he got the stuff out of her mouth but then adds, “There’s no life to her.”
It’s at this point, several minutes after Creel started trying mouth-to-mouth, that the dispatcher asks him for the first time if he has her nose pinched. Creel says no. She instructs him on how to do mouth-to-mouth.
He tries mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for two minutes and then asks, “Where is everybody?”
“They’re on their way,” the dispatcher says.
“Oh man, they’re taking so long.”
“I know sir. They’re on their way as fast as they can.”
Creel continues to try for a couple more minutes. He then tells the dispatcher he’s taking her blood pressure. “Her blood pressure is zero,” he tells the dispatcher 17 minutes into the conversation. “I still can’t get anything.”
Two minutes later, the dispatcher tells him how to do chest compressions.
Nearly 20 minutes into the tape - 24 minutes on the call log - the ambulance reaches the 200 block but can’t find the house.
“Sir, are you sure it’s 209 Augusta Highway? They’re looking for your house.”
“It’s 20908 Augusta Highway,” he said.
“It’s what?”
“20908.”
Creel pauses, then says, “Just pass (State Highway) 651.”
At this point, the dispatcher alerts a second ambulance closer to Creel. The first ambulance is eventually called off.
Twenty minutes into the conversation, Creel began to lose faith. “Oh, this is not doing any good.”
Later, he says, “Come on, Elaine.”
After 23 minutes on the tape, Creel tells the dispatcher that he’s just down the street from Stoney’s - a volunteer member of the fire and rescue department who was available to help at the time of the call, sources said.
The tape draws to an end with sirens in the background.
Creel tells the dispatcher that the ambulance is turning into the driveway. “You did a really good job, sir,” the dispatcher tells him.
Reach Andy Paras at
or (843) 549-9210.
DISPATCH DELAYS
The following is based on e-mail exchanges between Colleton County Sheriff’s Office and Fire and Rescue officials:
April 18: A caller reporting a car wreck gives the dispatcher the correct address. The dispatcher repeats it wrong and then the caller changes it again. Ambulances respond to 7442 Cane Branch Road instead of 4742 Cane Branch Road. Disciplinary action was taken.
March 21: An ambulance was dispatched to the police department even though the call was at the jail. A dispatcher got the call wrong. It was “handled” by a supervisor.
March 15: A dispatcher tells deputies that a person was trapped in a car. Rescue was not toned out, even though the dispatcher knew there was an entrapment. The case was “handled” by supervisors.
Jan. 15: Two rescue helicopters are dispatched to the wrong mile marker on Interstate 95, 10 miles away from a wreck. The dispatcher supervisor noted that neither the sheriff’s dispatcher nor the helicopter company dispatcher repeated the numbers individually.
Nov. 15, 2005: An ambulance was dispatched to 3409 Auld Brass Road. The proper address was 398 Auld Brass Road.
Oct. 26, 2005: Firefighters were dispatched to a house fire as many as seven minutes after deputies were dispatched. The house was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.
Sept. 28, 2005: An ambulance passes by a car wreck with an entrapment on I-95 while en route to another wreck without injuries because dispatchers didn’t know there were two wrecks. The man trapped inside dies.
SOURCE: Colleton Fire and Rescue
WEB EXTRAS
To hear excerpts of the 911 call to the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office, go to www.charleston.net/webextras.