Police say they've fixed lapse in 911 coverage

Township trustees suspended a dispatcher last month.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Police say they've addressed a lapse that led a dispatcher to miss a 911 call about a 3-month-old boy who stopped breathing.
Lt. Mark Durkin said the lone dispatcher on duty was in the bathroom when the call about the boy was made on March 27. Durkin said in the future, when a dispatcher needs to take a bathroom break, a police officer will be called to cover 911 calls.
"This is the first time this has happened," he said.
Scott O'Hara, a part-time firefighter for the township, said he called 911 in the afternoon of March 27 to report that his son, Brady, had stopped breathing. The phone rang six times, though O'Hara said, "To me, it felt like 20 rings.
"Nobody was there; nobody picked up," he said.
O'Hara said he hung up and phoned firefighters, who called an ambulance. A dispatcher called O'Hara and asked what had happened.
To the hospital
Brady started breathing again after about 30 seconds, O'Hara said. He said he and his wife took the boy to Forum Health Tod Children's Hospital, where a doctor determined that mucus in Brady's throat had caused him to stop breathing.
O'Hara's father, Assistant Fire Chief Bill O'Hara, told Durkin about the dispatching lapse last week. Durkin said he then created the policy calling police officers to cover 911 when dispatchers take a bathroom break.
Scott O'Hara noted that township officials have not called him to tell him that they changed the policy. He added that if he had not been a firefighter, he most likely would not have the phone number for the fire station, and he would not have known what to do when the dispatcher did not answer his 911 call.
"What would happen to someone else?" he asked.
Durkin noted that because of scheduling issues there are times when only one dispatcher is covering the township. The township's dispatch center has space for two dispatchers.
If all phone lines into the dispatch center are busy, 911 calls are redirected to Boardman police, but they are not redirected if dispatchers do not answer, Durkin said.
Previous problem
This is the second time in the past two months that township officials have addressed a problem with dispatching. Last month, township trustees suspended dispatcher Nicole Siciliano for a day without pay for failing to tell firefighters in December that there could be a man in a burning house, as well as for failing to send all necessary firefighters to a fire.
hill@vindy.com