WASHINGTON — A 911 call for an overdose at American University is under investigation after crews were dispatched to the wrong address five miles away. Unfortunately, that is not the only wrong address that's resulted in a review.
In fact, WUSA9 learned some call takers were recently fired.
Mayor Muriel Bowser held a news conference Thursday to help celebrate and congratulate one call-taker. Acting OUC Director Heather McGaffin presented Michael Ann Henderson with a plaque for a call she took last week.
Ward 1 resident Keith Moore dialed 911 after discovering his brother unconscious last week. He appeared at the news conference to thank her.
"Can I give you a hug?" he asked as he turned to embrace the call taker. “Today my brother is doing just fine thanks to her.”
The news conference at the Office of Unified Communication started with a thank you.
"This young lady was absolutely supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" he exclaimed, “I'm telling you she was unbelievable in the sense that I was hysterical, I was nervous, and I didn't know what to do and I'm a grown person but in that situation, with a loved one I didn't know what to do."
Henderson is a D.C. native and joined OUC just 10 months ago she said her mission is to help people. She not only got help to the correct address but talked Moore through CPR to get his brother breathing again.
“There are certain calls that stick with you long after the call is over, and this is one of them although this is a very difficult job being able to meet someone whose life you made a difference in makes it all worth it,” said Henderson.
But over the weekend, a call taker sent crews to 400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW instead of 4000 Massachusetts Ave., NW for an overdose at American University.
Crews were sent to the correct address 13 minutes later – thankfully, the student survived.
"That call taker, and any call taker who makes a mistake in [where to send crews], there is now a very set path forward for them,” explained acting director McGaffin.
McGaffin said that includes one-on-one location and call-taker training.
“While we can't always talk about details of them, I'm not always going to put the calls out because those are people's most vulnerable moments when they call 911, you can rest assured that we are reporting them and holding all of our call takers and supervisors accountable for them,” she said.
While the agency has increased training overall, McGaffin said they've had to "release" some call takers - despite being short-staffed by twenty-eight call takers.
“We do sometimes, we get to a point where we don't have an option, so we do take the actions that we need to take to ensure the safety of the city,” Henderson explained.
McGaffin said she is actively recruiting more call takers, but in the meantime, many are working 12-hour shifts and volunteering for overtime. The agency is partnering with the Department of Behavioral Health to soon provide trauma counseling for call takers to help them cope with the long hours and stressful calls.