ST. LOUIS — James and Michelle Outman had just got off Interstate 55, decked out in their Cardinals gear when their 14-year-old son Fischer told them something was wrong with his twin brother Felix.
The Outmans turned around. Felix was having a seizure.
“This seizure was so big and lasted so long, it was nothing that we had ever seen before,” Michelle Outman said. “It was terrifying watching his body do what it was doing.”
James Outman, who is a doctor, called 911 at 6:19 p.m. on July 28.
No one answered for 46 seconds, and his son’s condition seemed to get worse. So he handed the phone to his wife.
She called back twice more.
At 6:20 p.m., she waited on hold for 55 seconds.
At 6:21, she waited for four minutes.
“Hopelessness was what I felt,” Michelle Outman said. “I just kept looking around and just saying, ‘I need help, I need help for my son!’”
Finally, the Outmans say a sheriff’s deputy saw them and used his radio to call for help.
A local fire department was dispatched to the scene at 6th and Gratiot at 6:27 p.m. – nine minutes after Jamie Outman first tried calling for help.
An ambulance arrived five minutes later.
National standards from the National Emergency Number Association say 90% of calls should be answered within 15 seconds and 95% of calls should be answered within 20 seconds.
St. Louis has been operating below those standards for years.
Mayor Tishaura Jones’s office would not make anyone available for an interview.
Public Safety Spokesman Monte Chambers has issued statements, saying the city is working to build a new 911 center to house all police, fire and EMS dispatchers under one roof; raised the starting salary for a police dispatcher to $39,000; plans to cross-train dispatchers so they can fill in for each other; and has already combined police and EMS dispatchers in the 911 center.
Still, vacancies remain.
Public Safety Director Charles Coyle said there were 40 vacancies among police dispatchers and 10 vacancies among EMS dispatchers during a press conference in early July, after a woman died while she was pinned under a tree that fell on her car during a storm. Friends and neighbors said they couldn’t get a dispatcher to answer their calls for help, either.
One woman, whose husband died while on hold with 911, has filed a lawsuit. And the friends of a 47-year-old man who died from a cardiac event at Forest Park while playing baseball also say they struggled to get anyone to answer their 911 calls, too.
The Outmans contacted the I-Team after seeing those reports.
“I had no idea, I thought we were the only ones this has ever happened to,” Michelle Outman said.
Mayor Tishaura Jones’ spokesman Nick Desideri said callers should not hang up and call back like the Outmans did because it will put them behind everyone who is already on hold. He also said if a dispatcher is unavailable, an automated system asks callers to select police, fire or EMS dispatch.
In a crisis, the Outmans say an automated system isn’t helpful.
“It was very confusing,” Michelle Outman said. “The first couple of times I heard that, I wasn't even sure what I was hearing.”
When first responders did arrive to help Felix, they, too, seemed frustrated.
“I just kept saying I couldn't get through to 911, no one answered my call,” Michelle Outman said. “The first responders, the firemen and the EMS workers just kept telling me, ‘We're not 911 operators, we're not affiliated with 911, we're here now, we'd like to help your son.’”
One of the first responders asked me why I didn’t call a taxi to get her son to the hospital and another told her if she didn’t like being put on hold for 911, then she shouldn’t come back to St. Louis.
James Outman doesn’t blame them for their reactions.
“They’re frustrated too because they want to help people,” James Outman said.
Her husband added: “I could see that in a lot of these first responders eyes and in their mannerisms and how they were acting, I could tell this isn't the first time this has happened.”
Once Felix got to Cardinal Glennon Hospital that night, doctors got him stabilized.
And the Outmans started researching online how big the 911 problem is in St. Louis.
They consider themselves lucky that the delay in getting through to a dispatcher didn’t leave them in the same position as families who have lost loved ones.
“We wanted to share our story so that if it could help expedite a resolution for this issue,” Michelle Outman said.
The mayor’s office has also issued statements calling attention to raises for dispatchers. Starting pay for a police dispatcher – where there are the most vacancies – is now $39,000.
“That’s not enough,” Michelle Outman said.
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