By Tim Puko
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH — Allegheny County suspended a 911 operator whose typo sent paramedics to the wrong address for a call about a dying infant on June 11.
The call-taker, whose name was not released, should return to work tonight, after serving a five-day suspension without pay and undergoing 32 hours of remedial training, said Gary Thomas, assistant chief of county Emergency Services and 911 coordinator. The woman had nine years of experience but failed to verify the address before and after it was sent to emergency dispatchers, he added.
“Even though the address was changed inadvertently, it’s still the responsibility of the call-taker to verify the address,” Thomas said.
Union officials declined to comment Friday, but they previously called a suspension premature and unwarranted. The operator initially entered the right address into the county’s computer system, but missed a keystroke when she added an apartment number causing the computer to change the name of the street.
The typo resulted in paramedics taking an extra seven minutes to reach 3-week-old Jordyn Anderson of Crafton Heights. She died an hour later. Autopsy results to determine a cause of death are awaiting lab tests that could take 20 weeks to complete, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Medical Examiner Karl Williams has said no evidence indicates that the delayed response played a role in the baby’s death.
County officials are still trying to resolve the computer problem and nobody knows yet why the typo led the computer to change the street name, Thomas said. The software operator and a contractor, Tiburon, are searching for a solution.
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