Linda Thompson knew CPR. But hysteria overtook her in the terrifying moments after she pulled her toddler from the family's swimming pool last month.

Dispatcher Rich McCane can read computerized instructions to callers so they can give aid until professional help arrives. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        Rich McCane knew what to do. The Hamilton County dispatcher who took Mrs. Thompson's frantic 911 call immediately started asking questions, assessing what had happened and trying to calm the Miami Township mother — and to take control.

        Forty-five seconds into the call, he began reading CPR instructions from a computerized script. He guided her through the steps that enabled Mrs. Thompson to breathe life back into her 20-month-old son — saving him from irreversible brain damage or death.

        “Time is life,” Mr. McCane recalls thinking at the time, repeating words instilled in him in training.

Linda Thompson with her son Justin. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        But if the Thompsons had lived elsewhere in the Tristate, the story might have ended differently. An Enquirer survey found that about one of every six Tristate dispatch agencies doesn't offer first-aid instructions. Their reasons range from lack of manpower to concern about liability.

        That's despite a local shift since the late 1990s to train dispatchers to provide the instructions, which include dozens of emergency scenarios. But most states, including Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, don't require dispatching centers to offer the service.

        Of 31 agencies in nine Tristate counties, dispatchers in five communities — Covington, Fairfield, Oxford, Lebanon and Blanchester — do not offer the doctor-approved medical instructions that can be read from a flip card or a computer screen.

911 CALL

911 emergency call, 5:37 p.m., May 16.   Dispatcher Rich McCane: 911 emergency dispatch.   Linda Thompson: Please help me, I live at ----. ... My little boy was in the pool. (inaudible)   McCane: Ma'am, what's happened?   Thompson: He fell in the pool. My baby fell in the ...   McCane: Is he breathing?   Thompson: No. (screams)   McCane: Not breathing?   Thompson: Not breathing (hysterical screaming).   McCane: I'm dispatching a life squad. ... Would you like to do CPR?   Thompson: I don't know how. I forgot.   McCane: You don't know how. Would you like me to help you?   Thompson: Oh, God. Please help.   McCane: How old is your child?   Thompson: He's 20 months.   McCane: 20 months?   Thompson: 20 months. Please. He stopped breathing ... (inaudible). Oh, God. Please help me. Please God. Help me. Please God. Don't. ...   McCane: OK, Ma'am. Calm down and listen to me. Listen carefully as I tell you what to do.   Thompson: He's breathing. He's breathing. My baby's breathing.   McCane: Ma'am, try to calm down. Listen to me and I'll tell you what to do.   Thompson: He's not breathing anymore.   McCane: I need you to put the phone next to your little boy if you can.   Thompson: OK. OK.   McCane: Just be careful. ... I'm going to tell you what to do.   Thompson: OK. OK. OK.   McCane: Put your little boy on a hard surface near the phone.   Thompson: He's on the concrete.   McCane: All right. Expose his chest.   Thompson: OK. It is.   McCane: What I want you to do is pinch his nose.   Thompson: Pinch his nose?   McCane: Right. With your other hand, lift the chin and gently tilt his head back.   Thompson. Tilt his head back.   McCane: Completely cover your little boy's mouth with your mouth and force two quick breaths of air into his lungs. Make sure the chest rises, and I want you to do that now.   Thompson: OK.   McCane: Is he moving or breathing normally?   Thompson: Oh, baby. Please, God.   McCane: Ma'am. Ma'am. Is he moving or breathing normally now?   Thompson: No.   McCane: OK, I want you to do it again.   Thompson: Hold on, he just took a gulp.   McCane: OK. Did he take a breath?   Thompson: Yes.   McCane: OK, I want you to ... Ma'am, listen to me carefully. I'm going to tell you what to do.   Thompson: OK.   McCane: I want you to roll him on his side, and I want you to check for breathing. Is he breathing?   Thompson: He's making sounds.   McCane: He's making sounds.   Thompson: Please, tell them please hurry.   McCane: OK. Is his chest rising?   Thompson: OK. He's making some sounds.   McCane: OK.   Thompson: OK. I can see his breath.   McCane: OK. Good. Excellent. You did a good job.   The life squad arrives, 5:39 p.m.

INFOGRAPHIC

• Life saving basics: CPR, Heimlich maneuver

        Fort Thomas dispatchers also don't give pre-arrival instructions. But that information still is available because the city routinely patches those 911 calls through to the responding EMTs or paramedics. Come July 1, the information will be automatic from 911 dispatchers when Campbell County consolidates countywide communications.

        Fewer than 2,500 of a total 18,000 communications agencies in the United States have dispatchers who are certified to give the instruction, said Dr. Jeff Clawson, a Salt Lake City physician who developed the system in the 1970s.

        His company, Priority Dispatch Corp. is contracted to train and certify dispatchers in the procedure for the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch.

        “The objective is to send the right thing to the right person at the right place at the right time and do the right thing for the patient until they get there,” Dr. Clawson said.

        Most Tristate agencies began offering the service only in the past five years or less after being certified through national organizations that have pushed for the professionalism of dispatchers.

        However, some offered it before by using instructions approved by their departments' medical directors.

        “In our mind, it was better to do something than nothing,” said Don Sebastianelli, deputy director of the Warren County Department of Emergency Services. That agency since has sought certification for its dispatchers.

        The reasons for not offering medical instruction vary from agency to agency.

        Some don't want to take the risk of possible lawsuits if an untrained dispatcher gives out bad information. Nor do they have the money (at $300 to $400 a person) or the manpower to fill in for dispatchers sent off for three days to be trained in the procedure called emergency medical dispatch (EMD).

        Others argue that their communities are small enough that EMTs or paramedics can respond before a dispatcher could calm a caller enough to start giving instructions.

        The Clinton County Sheriff's Office, which dispatches only Blanchester's medical calls, doesn't give instructions for all of the above reasons, said Col. Ralph Fizer Jr. All other medical runs in the county are handled by Wilmington dispatchers, who offer the doctor-approved instructions.

        “I see pros and cons to it. You are talking with someone over the phone who is panicking and screaming. Are you getting the right information? Can you really determine what needs to be done?” he said. “I believe in us doing our job. But, I want to be right when we do it.”

        Lebanon Police Chief Ken Burns, said the service would add too much of a workload for the department that has only a single dispatcher assigned to each shift.

        In Oxford, the city police department began certifying dispatchers to give the instructions but officials backed off when they realized their limited staff couldn't handle it, said Sgt. Matt Franke, who is the police department's communications manager.

        “If you are going to do this, you have to have somebody you can dedicate to this call and see it through. There has to be someone to carry the remaining workload,” Sgt. Franke said. “You can't say we are going to do it sometimes and not other times.”

        Fairfield police officials said it isn't necessary to give pre-arrival instructions because the city has three paramedic units in three fire stations to serve 42,000 residents in the 20-square-mile city.

        “Our response time is in the neighborhood of between three and four minutes. All of our police officers carry (defibrillators),” said Lt. Linda Stroud.

        Dennis Stuckey, assistant city manager, said the level of service provided by dispatchers was discussed by council in past years, but no changes were made.

        “I can't say that the public is specifically aware of it,” he said about the lack of EMD service in Fairfield “On the other hand, I think we've gone to great lengths to provide the best medical attention as we can through the fire department.”

        Covington officials also said their quick response to medical emergencies makes offering instruction unnecessary.

        Dr. Clawson questions that logic.

        “Those response times are an average. For every (call) that is a five-minute average, there is one that's one minute and one that is 11 minutes,” he said. According to the American Heart Association, CPR can improve survival when it is started within four to six minutes.

        Mr. McCane, a former firefighter and paramedic who was sidelined by a back injury, was trained in EMD two years ago, when he joined the Hamilton County Communications Center. He finds it a vital part of his job because it helps the 911 caller take immediate life-saving action.

        To Mrs. Thompson, it's something that every 911 center should be doing:

        “If it wasn't for him to talk me through that, we could be dealing with a different situation than (Justin) being healthy, like he is.”

       David Eck and Stephenie Steitzer of the Enquirer contributed to this report.
       

Health board keeps pill funds
Dispatchers help from afar
Fleeced by Donahue, victims get hit again
Soccer fans' new goal: Bring World Cup to city
Stagnant water at construction sites frustrates area residents
Clermont cancer rates high
Cincinnati State graduates find new beginnings
German-Americans get kick out of World Cup
More equipment sought for Hazmat
Principal at Aiken taking job at Kings
Street near Aronoff among hooker 'hot spots'
They come from far, wide to watch Ichiro
Tristate A.M. Report
HOWARD: Some Good News
PULFER: Channel surfing
Children Services fires asst. director
District losing $ to charter schools
Maineville tax displeases some
Mental health recovery seeks levy
Morrow students share energy tips
Teen convicted under 'serious juvenile offender' law
Union Twp. seeks police/fire levy
Woman gets six months for not protecting girls
Alcohol not factor in dad's, son's drownings
Assembly not very receptive to plan
House passes school pledge requirement
New game makes millions
Pool cameras detect drownings
Covington man, shot in loud-music dispute, testifies
Kentucky News Briefs
Ky. school testing is applauded by survey
Newpaper gets OK to publish
Obituary: Ruby Wyatt operated Falmouth grocery