Mistakes may be costing NC responders time

IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — Ambulances and paramedics being dispatched to the wrong address are delaying medical care to victims in North Carolina.

Recent cases of a seizure victim being left unattended for nearly half an hour and a gunshot victim waiting 20 minutes for assistance were both due to 911 dispatchers recording incorrect addresses, according to an investigation by WSOCTV.

The recorded calls reveal confusion on the part of the dispatchers, who apparently mishear street names and cities.

“I think my mom is having a seizure, or she ... and she’s jerking a lot and I need y’all to come out here fast,” an 11-year-old boy said in one call.

“Beu, Beulah Road. And uh, and uh, and I think my mom is having a seizure or something,” the caller said.

“Deal Road in Mooresville, ma’am? Or Statesville? Deal Lane?” a dispatcher asked.

“Statesville. Beu, Beulah Road,” the caller said.

But paramedics were sent to a Deal Lane address.

The head of Iredell County’s Emergency Communications, David Martin, said that dispatchers should have done more, like pinpointing where the calls were coming from through their cellphones, technology known as phase-2 or pinging.

They also could have asked the callers for cross streets and to spell the street name, he said.

Supervisors are now going over training and revising protocol. Dispatchers will now phase-2 or ping all calls where ‘the location is unclear.