Having trained for 9 months, becoming nationally certified and being crowned the valedictorian of my 911 internship I felt I was prepared for any emergency call that would come my way, until that early March morning. It seemed as though this day would never come. I got to handle a call myself, without a trainer, without another call taker on the headset, without supervision. I was not expecting much out of the calls I would receive because usually mornings were slow, filled with traffic accidents and citizens calling to complain about things that weren't emergencies at all. The building was cold, the tables were filled with small bags of chips, chewy bars and many another snacks to hold us down until our breaks.
I looked at all three of my computer monitors, double checking everything in the system was working properly, just as I began to settle, the ominous ringing of a phone rang in my ears.
"911 do you need police, fire or ambulance?" I asked, "My husband just hit me and I'm now hiding in the car, I think he's getting his gun!" I know I'm supposed to keep calm, for the sake of both our sanities, but my thoughts stumble. Everything I was trained, every test I took, everything I've learned about the job didn't seem to exist in my brain. I just wanted to take my headset off and hand it to the nearest call taker and say "well, here you go good luck!" but I came back into reality. I looked around the room and see my co-workers calm, steady, moving their hands and mouths so fluidly and naturally, I envied their grace. I felt a tremendous amount of pressure.
Suddenly I was responsible for another human beings life. This woman on the other end the line was real, not a "fake call" not a robot, she had name,a life, a history and if I didn't help her she would be without a future. My brain clicks, I picture myself when I was in training in the classroom, I remembering hearing my instructor explaining calls such as the one I was receiving and how to handle it and follow protocol.
What seemed like hours of me mustering up the confidence to reply to this woman was only 3 seconds according to the time on the call. "Can you verify your address so I know where to send police and verify your phone number in case we get disconnected?" After those two necessary questions, I began to breathe again. If I felt this much stress from the situation I wondered how the woman felt, but I wouldn't become emotionally attached, I couldn't, it's a call takers number one enemy because it eats you alive with the questions of "what if?...". The words following seemed to flow as swiftly as water, within minutes I got the police to the scene. I was then forced to let go of this situation, forced to forget about the woman whose life I just saved. I will never know what she looks like or how she's doing today but I do know I helped her, this important moment made me realize that my altruism is the greatest gift I can give to the world.
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