DC911: Where even dying babies & dogs can’t bring change

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Previously – DC911 Meltdown: Paramedics delayed getting to dying infant

For the third time in two years, we’re mourning the loss of a baby whose final moments involved serious mistakes at DC911. And five days after the child’s death, 911’s director and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration haven’t even acknowledged what’s painfully obvious – the 911 center was ill prepared to deal with a sudden computer outage. It’s the fifth such outage since May 23rd.

During Friday’s computer crash, dispatchers failed to keep track of which fire trucks and ambulances were on calls and which weren’t. They also frequently didn’t confirm that firefighters and medics heard the calls and were actually on the way. Because of this, dispatchers didn’t realize they sent two units with paramedics to help revive the child that weren’t available to immediately respond. Fifteen to 20 minutes were lost before dispatchers figured out their mistake.

This wasn’t a single error made by one dispatcher. For the two hours or so of the computer outage, DC911 continually made the same mistakes. What occurred Friday, and in the days that have followed, touches on every aspect of our reporting on DC911 – poor training, extreme staffing issues, serious delays answering 911 calls, a lack of transparency, and leadership unwilling to acknowledge the agency’s mistakes and failures.

Washington Post: D.C. 911 center under fire again after baby dies during computer outage

Office of Unified Communications Director Heather McGaffin left town within hours of Friday’s meltdown to make an appearance at an industry convention in Orlando. Once there, she provided tips on crisis management in a panel moderated by OUC’s previous director, Karima Holmes. McGaffin has yet to answer a single question from reporters about OUC’s own crisis, including why 911 couldn’t function effectively during a computer outage.

McGaffin’s boss, Deputy Mayor Lindsey Appiah, issued an initial statement that didn’t even acknowledge the dispatch computer failure. A follow-up statement from city officials blamed the computer problem on a contractor improperly performing an update, but it didn’t mention the lengthy delay sending paramedics. And a later timeline provided to reporters failed to account for what NBC Washington reporter Ted Oberg learned was in a police report – that relatives of the child tried to call 911 but got no answer and hung up. STATter911 has learned at least one call was received at 12:39 p.m., eleven minutes before the city’s official timeline begins.

All of this should sound familiar to anyone who follows DC911’s many problems. It’s the same crisis management game plan city leaders used when 911 failed to send help after people and dogs became trapped in a flood on Rhode Island Avenue NE and when fire, EMS, and police were sent to the wrong location after a car with three people inside plunged into the Anacostia River. In both cases, the Bowser administration still steadfastly avoids admitting what is obvious – DC911 made serious mistakes. It’s a year later, and Director McGaffin continues to withhold key documents about these incidents, including ones demanded by council members in a public hearing.

And then there’s the Council of DC’s oversight under the direction of Council member Brooke Pinto. Pinto couldn’t even be bothered to be interviewed by reporters. The best she offers, so far, is a tepid statement that doesn’t make waves. If a third dying baby failed by DC911 in two years isn’t a time to be outraged and make waves then maybe the oversight business isn’t really your thing.

And it goes well beyond these babies. Every day, hundreds of people call DC911 and can’t get a prompt answer. It’s a fact even Director McGaffin herself used to candidly admit. There are others who’ve lost loved ones and did exactly what the family on Friday did. They hung up and tried to find someone to help them because 911 wasn’t available in their moment of need.

Where’s the leadership, the will, the compassion, and the honesty? All of these are missing as DC911 continues to fail people every day of the week.

Somehow, a 911 director flying away in the middle of her own crisis to teach other 911 leaders how to deal with their crisis is a perfect way to describe to someone the state of 911 in the nation’s capital.