Messrs

Dear Editor,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the fine gentlemen who came to my aid last week when I had my accident at home. Messrs Deputy Sheriff Jackson, and EMT's Garcia and Laird.

Sincerely,
James Wilson

"But... But... But... What about me?! Without me getting the 911 call from your wife who gave me the info to get somebody out there, you might be six feet under, pushing up daisies!"

There's no denying it, we all have our pity parties every once in a while. We listen to the 911 and dispatch the call where the officer that saved the girl's life later gets presented the key to the city and is revered as a hero for eternity and then some.  But what are we? Just a voice? Sometimes that really irks me. All we are to some people is a voice. The voice on the other end of the phone who is supposed to go through this horrific situation completely blind, guiding first responders and the caller, giving everybody the right information at the right time. The "annoying" voice checking on the 15 year veteran officer out in the field who hasn't gone clear from his last traffic stop yet. "Do you really have to check on us so often?" YES. Because, God forbid, if something happens to you out there, I will have to live with that sort of guilt for the rest of my life.

We hear the pleas of the mother holding her infant son who isn't breathing anymore. The cries for help of the gunshot victim who only knows they are in a dark alley somewhere in the city. The yelling and screaming of parents who are fighting over the last line of cocaine while their child hides in the closet scared for their life. These are real life events, and we have to live through them everyday. Do we get calls like this all the time? No, not necessarily. But when we do get them, they don't just disappear from your mind, never to be thought of again. They linger there, slowly eating away at your sanity, disconnecting you from the side of yourself that once held the emotions of your life.

When you pick up the 911 line, you never know what you're going to get. But what we always have to be prepared for is a person on the other end who is at the end of their rope. You are the light at the end of their tunnel and by God, you better be ready to help. 911 is supposed to have all the answers, aren't they? We're supposed to be the ones who get the "real heroes" out there. But imagine trying to live your life normally when a majority of the time you spend at work is spent hearing every possible horrific event you could imagine.

I feel like 911 dispatchers are seen in a negative light nowadays. There are too many news stories about how this or that botched 911 call ended up in a casualty or somebody being seriously injured. What about the good stories? The stories that should be told every single day. The stories where a call-taker saves somebody's life by telling the bystander how to perform CPR. Or how the dispatcher guided the frightened 12 year old to somewhere safe in their home until police got there and arrested the burglars. These types of calls happen everyday, all the time. But it's the expectation of "Well, that's what they're there for, isn't it?" that ruins this job. But stories about the everyday heroes don't always make for good TV, now do they?