Trending
Amid our wonderful army of health-care workers and first responders fighting the pandemic, we cannot forget the faceless warriors known as 911 dispatchers.
Clinton County Emergency Services Director Andrew Kremser reminded us of that during a recent presentation to the Kiwanis Club of Lock Haven at one of its weekly meetings at the Sons of Italy.
Like its sister counties, Clinton employs dispatchers around the clock.
Those dispatchers in the old Flemington school handled approximately 71,500 calls in 2021.
Let's do the math: That equates to 1,960 calls per day.
Dispatchers also took 67 texts into the emergency system, mostly from people needing help who did not have adquate cell services to make a direct call.
That, Kremser said, is part of the impetus for Pennsylvania's multi-million dollar investment to upgrade the 911 system statewide.
He also talked about "Rapid SOS" techonology being deployed that essentially uses bluetooth technology to add yet another way for people to call or "ping" for help.
Digital mapping is key, he noted, giving dispatchers instantaneous information pinpointing the location of the person calling for help.
And then there's the human side of emergency services.
The side many of us don't hear about.
The "bad calls," as Kremser related, from those who are suicidal to those with COVID to those who become unresponsive over the phone.
The 911 center took 82 suicide calls in 2021.
Nine callers were deceased by the time responders got to them.
And those 82 calls are up from 70 in 2020, which was up dramatially from 40 in 2019.
Blame it on COVID and the resulting impact on people's emotional and mental health.
And let's not forget about calls for domestic assault and violence.
Those calls have easily doubled if not tripled since 2019, Kremser said.
Kremser related three very sad -- nay, heartbreaking examples of calls in 2021, including a person with COVID who died before help could arrive.
There are "good calls," too.
Coaching a person to perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) saved one heart-attack victim.
Kremser figures dispatchers saved at least five lives last year by facilitating help to callers.
They also brought one new child into this world by coaching a caller so that the baby was born just before responders arrived.
Two other children were born into the arms of first-responders in 2021.
Kremser called his team of dispatchers "silent heroes" with a "thankless job on perhaps the most important day of your (a caller's) life."
The "mental stress is intense" so the county offers or facilitates support groups and an employee assistance program to help with counseling when needed. Training to be a dispatcher starts with an initial 16-weeks, but Kremser said the best training is "live calls."
Continuing education and training are required -- as they should be since people's lives are on the line.
There is staff turnover, of course.
It's too much for some.
Yet, dispatchers typically don't want public recognition, Kremser said, because saving and helping people is their job.
So on this day -- and every day -- we say THANK YOU to all emergency dispatchers.
-- Bob Rolley
"As you serve: God Bless you as you serve and may you be aware of the many people who are holding you in prayer! For your loyalty and bravery we are so grateful and we trust that God's taking care of you while you're taking care of us!"