By Beth Hahn
Mountain View Telegraph
Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE — Torrance and Santa Fe county officials are investigating a 911 call to which it took emergency crews about 30 minutes to respond.
Patricia Rogers, a Tennessee resident who grew up in Moriarty, detailed the events surrounding the 911 call - which ended with her mother’s death - in a scathing letter sent to several Albuquerque news organizations.
Rogers claims Santa Fe and Torrance county emergency dispatchers repeatedly gave her father incorrect arrival times for an ambulance while her mother was having a seizure.
Rogers’ letter also states that she filed formal complaints with both counties.
Rogers’ mother, Len Schenker, was being treated with chemotherapy for a brain tumor, according to the letter. Schenker had a round of chemotherapy on Feb. 15, went to lunch with her assistant, went shopping and then went home in Edgewood.
Later that afternoon, Schenker became unconscious and had shallow breathing. Her assistant called 911 and a Santa Fe County dispatcher answered “after three rings,” the letter states.
After hearing the situation, the dispatcher requested an ambulance from a fire station in Edgewood, according to Santa Fe County public information officer Stephen Ulibarri.
An EMT crew was not available in the Edgewood station because of another emergency call, Ulibarri said, so the dispatcher requested assistance from Torrance County.
The first available volunteer EMT crew in Torrance County was in McIntosh, Ulibarri said. That crew was dispatched and left for Edgewood.
In the meantime, Schenker began to have a seizure before EMTs could arrive. She died shortly after EMTs arrived, about 30 minutes after the ini- tial 911 call.
Ulibarri said that the situation was a convergence of several unfortunate factors and that he and other Santa Fe County officials are “deeply saddened” for the loss of Rogers’ mother.
“We are really saddened,” he said Monday. “Our condolences go out to (Rogers) and her family.”
Ulibarri said he listened to a recording of the 911 call and “it was very difficult.”
After reviewing the call, however, Ulibarri said Santa Fe County dispatchers followed protocol and did the best they could.
“Yes it took a while (for EMTs to get to Schenker’s home),” he said. “But from listening to the tape, I don’t think there’s anything the county did wrong.”
According to Ulibarri, Santa Fe County has one team of firefighter/EMTs stationed in Edgewood because the area does not receive as many calls for service as the northern portion of the county.
Full-time staffers are few and the county relies heavily on volunteers, he said. On Feb. 15, no Edgewood volunteers were available so Torrance County was contacted, he explained.
Rogers’ letter complains that dispatchers should have told the 911 caller that the nearest emergency crew was in McIntosh, so that family members could have taken Schenker to a hospital in Albuquerque.
The letter also finds fault with dispatchers from both Santa Fe and Torrance counties for laughing among themselves during the call.
“At this point (the dispatcher) puts my father on hold to check on the location and states, ‘he’s totally flipping out’ WHILE LAUGHING!!” Rogers wrote.
Ulibarri said the laughter never took place while the dispatcher was talking to the 911 caller and said he did not think the laughter was jovial in nature.
“It was more like ... oh my gosh, I can’t believe (the ambulance) isn’t there yet,” he said. “It wasn’t making light of the situation ... a lot of times in trauma situations, hospitals or ERs, people who work there have to find a way to deal with the situation and they do a lot of things most of us wouldn’t find normal.”
While Rogers’ letter holds Santa Fe and Torrance dispatchers responsible for Schenker’s death, Ulibarri and Torrance County attorney Dennis Wallin said several factors played a role.
“When people live in a rural area, those are some of the risks you take,” Ulibarri said. “We have a fire station there, yes, but we don’t have lots and lots of staff. It was one of those rare instances where there was another high priority call going on at the same time.”
Wallin said the incident was “unfortunate” and Torrance officials are reviewing how its emergency dispatcher handled the call.
Reached by phone Monday, Rogers declined to give a statement other than what she wrote in her letter, but said she hoped media attention would “get a response” from Santa Fe and Torrance county officials.
“I haven’t gotten a letter, or call or anything letting me know they’ve received my complaint,” she said. “I figure once the story comes out ... I’ll be hearing something from them.”