Boy Calls 911 Police Never Show Up, Mother Dies

[KC]

04/08/2006 - A 5-year-old boy called 911 to report that his mother had collapsed in their apartment, but an operator told him he should not be playing on the phone, and she died before help arrived.

The family of Sherrill Turner, 46, does not know whether a swifter response could have saved her life, but relatives want to know why the operator apparently treated the call as if it were a prank.

Police said the 911 response was under investigation.

Turner's son, Robert, placed two calls to 911 after his mother collapsed Feb. 20 on the kitchen floor. During one of the calls, an operator said: "You shouldn't be playing on the phone."

In a tape of the call, parts of which were broadcast by Detroit-area television stations, the operator said: "Now put her on the phone before I send the police out there to knock on the door and you gonna be in trouble."

In an audio of the tape played on TV, some of what the boy says is unintelligible.

Delaina Patterson, the eldest of Turner's 10 children, said police did not arrive until three hours later. She said only Robert and his mother were home at the time.

Detroit police spokesman James Tate said it was at least an hour before authorities arrived, but he said he did not have details. By that time, the boy's mother had died, he said.

"The operator may have believed he was playing on the phone," Tate said.

Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said it was important not to rush to judgment.

"If disciplinary action is recommended following the completion of the investigation, then that is the course that will be taken," she said.

The 911 operator remains on the job amid the investigation, Tate said.

[WaTcHeR]

Family files suit in boy's dimissed 911 calls

With his arm around 6-year-old Robert Turner in his Southfield law office, attorney Geoffrey Fieger on Monday announced the filiing of a lawsuit seeking more than $1 million against 911 dispatchers who dimissed Robert's calls for help for his mother earlier this year, adding that the Turner incident was not an isolated case.

This case is hardly the first of its kind, he said.

In fact, Fieger added, another Detroit resident, Lorraine Hayes, who called 911 twice on Jan. 12, 2005, and told dispatchers she was shot, is now a paraplegic because of the injuries. Hayes, who is represented by Fieger, also is suing unnamed police dispatchers. Fieger said Detroit police had denied the existence of the calls, and on Monday publicly played Hayes' call for the first time.

Fieger, who did not say how he got the recording, said it was made at 9:28 p.m., and then at 9:53 p.m.

Both calls, Fieger said, were ignored.

Hayes got help, Feiger said, only after she called her son in Minnesota, who called the police there, and then in Detroit.

Fieger chided the Detroit police 911 operators, saying that every call has to be considered a life and death situation. He added that this is not only a problem in Detroit, but in cities nationwide. Both lawsuits, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, name unnamed dispatchers as defendants. Fieger said the city is immuned from these types of lawsuits but is expected to defend its employees and is expected to pay any damages should the suits prevail.

At the news conference, a shy Robert Turner gripped a Spider-Man toy as his feet dangled over the edge of a chair. He told reporters that his mother, Sherrill Turner, of Detroit, told him to call 911 because she felt like she was passing out. One of his sisters Delaina Patterson, of Novi, also attended the news conference as a representative of her mothers estate.

Fieger said he believes that Turner would be alive had the dispatcher taken the boys call seriously. He said the family has received more than 100 supportive notes and letters from all over the world.

Were all devastated, Patterson said, nearly in tears. She added that her brother will see a therapist.

Fieger said he has also hired a medical examiner to give a second opinion on the cause of Sherrill Turner's death, but has not received the results. He said that he believes Turner could have been saved, because she did not have a history of heart problems, and no significant heart disease and did not use drugs or abuse alcohol.

Robert, who was alone with his mother when she suffered from a heart problem, called 911 at 5:59 p.m., and then at 9:02 p.m. on Feb. 20. In one call, the operator said that he shouldnt be playing on the phone, and Robert hung up. Fieger said Detroit police went to the home - not EMS - to check on whether the calls had been pranks; but it was too late.

In the 911 cellphone call that Feiger said Hayes made, Hayes, 40, calmly asks for an ambulance.

Ive been shot in the head, she says. Im dying.

She gives her first name and answers the dispatchers questions with yes, maam, and no maam. She tells the dispatcher she had been shot in the head two times by her husband, and is on the floor and bleeding. She gives her address and repeatedly asks for help.

At one point the dispatcher asked if she was male of female. Hayes said "male,'' and then "female.''

The dispatcher continued to question her, asking at one point: Are you a mental patient?

Hayes responded, No maam. And told her she called on her cell phone.

The dispatcher also warned her that she would get in trouble if she made a false report similar to what a dispatcher told Robert Turner.

In Hayes second call, answered, according to Feiger, by possibly the same dispatcher, Hayes says, Im getting ready to die. The dispatcher tells her that police and EMS are on the way. Hayes repeats her address, gives her cell phone number, and says she is shot in the temple and the chest. The dispatcher responds, But you are able to call on the phone? Thats a miracle.

Hayes asks the dispatcher to call somebody.

Im dying, she says. I swear to God.

At the end of the call, the dispatcher says Theyre on their way. Hayes responds: Thank you. Police arrived at 10:14 p.m., according to the lawsuit. She was taken to Detroit Receiving Hosptial.

Fieger said Hayes would not be paralyzed had she been treated sooner.

She is seeking more than $25,000.

[KC]

6/09/06 - DETROIT, MI - Two 911 operators who authorities say did not believe a 5-year-old boy who called to say his mother had collapsed were arraigned Friday on willful neglect of duty charges.

Judge Jimmylee Gray entered not guilty pleas for Sharon Nichols 43, and Terri Sutton, 47. If convicted of the misdemeanor, they could get a year in jail.

The women declined to comment afterward, but their lawyers said the operators intend to fight the charges.

"We look forward to coming to court and defending this case in the proper forum," said Sutton's lawyer, David Lee.

No police car was sent after Nichols took the first call on Feb. 20. The boy then called again three hours later, and Sutton sent police out to discipline the child and inform the parent that the youngster was dialing 911, prosecutors said.

When police finally arrived, 46-year-old Sherrill Turner was dead.

Defense lawyers told the judge that the operators had been suspended from their jobs. But police said Friday that they didn't have updated information on disciplinary action, which they have said could range from suspension without pay to termination.