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Volume 2, Issue 12 - December 2006 |
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Contact NICE: Email: Welcome@nice.com On the web: www.nice.com North America: Customer hotline: (888) 217-0593 Customer support: (800) 642-3611 (800) NICE 611 Europe, Middle East, and Africa: +44 (0) 207 2642064 +972 97753800 |
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NICE Systems, Inc. 11480 Commerce Park Drive Second Floor Reston, VA 21091 |
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| NICE NEWS SPECIAL DELIVERY! MEET CITY OF ARLINGTON, TEXAS, TELECOMMUNICATOR MARIA DIMAS-MENDEZ |
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 Pictured: Maria Dimas-Mendez, Telecommunicator, Dispatch Services, City of Arlington, Texas In her ten-year career as a 9-1-1 Operator for the City of Arlington, Texas, Maria has handled thousands of emergency calls. But there’s always that one call that stands out. In Maria’s case, it came on the morning of December 18, 2005 at 7:05 a.m. On the other end of the line, Maria could make out a little girl’s voice: “Can you send an ambulance?” “What is the address of the emergency?” Maria responds. With Maria’s prompting, the girl relates the address, the phone number and finally the problem. “My sister’s having a baby,” she explains, in a calmness that belies her age. Over the course of the next few minutes, a gripping drama unfolds, as Maria coaches the child and her two sisters, telling them step by step what to do. Not far into the call, someone can be heard in the background screaming “the baby’s coming!” Maria asks the little girl: “Is there someone else there with you and your sister?” “My big sister and my medium sister and my other medium sister,” the girl replies. Maria asks, “Can you let me speak to an adult please?” The child hands the phone to her second, bigger sister who promptly informs Maria that the baby has arrived. Using her EMD protocols and training, Maria gathers more information and gives the girl instructions to ensure both mom and baby are cared for until the ambulance arrives. Maria asks the age of the new mom. She determines that the mom is conscious and breathing. She finds out the baby was due in February. “Just stay on the line with me. I need to tell you what you need to do, OK?” Maria says, reassuring the second sister who’s now on the phone. “I’m sending paramedics to help you. Just stay on the line. I’ll tell you exactly what to do next.” Maria asks more questions. With each answer, she offers further instructions to the girl on the other end of the phone, who then relates the instructions in rapid succession to her other sisters. She determines the baby is crying and breathing. She tells the sister to dry the baby off and wrap it in a clean towel to keep it warm; to cover the baby’s head, but not the baby’s face. She instructs the girl to tie a string or shoelace tightly around the umbilical cord, but not to cut it. “Are they doing it, or are you?” Maria asks, wanting to make sure her instructions are being followed. Abruptly, the second sister tells Maria to hold on and hands the phone to the third sister, who then tells Maria that her other sister went to get a towel – for “a second one.” “Is she having another baby?” an astonished Maria asks. “She says that she feels that she is,” the girl replies. Everyone, including the sisters and the new mom are surprised by the new twist in this story – a second baby. But in the moments that follow, Maria stays calm, asking questions and giving instructions until the EMS personnel arrive. The clicking of keys on Maria’s computer keyboard can be heard as she enters information into her CAD screen. Moments later, the call ends suddenly and anticlimactically as Maria gets confirmation that the first responders have arrived. “Is the front door unlocked?” she asks. “It’s open,” the girl replies. “Are they there with her right now?” Maria inquires, wanting to be sure EMS is there to help. “They’re here,” the girl responds. “OK, then I’ll let you go,” Maria says. “Thank you.” “Thank you,” the girl replies. As she later recounts the details of the 9-1-1 call to me, Maria reflects on another odd twist of fate. Maria had taken the call from the little girl on what had been her second day back on the job – following her own maternity leave. “What was going through my head was I knew what to expect,” she said of the call. “But this was so different. It was a totally different scenario.” Communications Supervisor Jimmy Pitstick (with the City of Arlington, Texas Dispatch Services) says Maria exemplifies calm under pressure. He says Maria stands out in other ways, too. “To put it in plain language,” he said, “I think she has an inherent quality of wanting to help, a willingness to go the extra mile to take care of other people.” He further tells us Maria models empathy and compassion not only in her profession as a telecommunicator but in her personnel life as well, through her involvement in charities like the Big Brothers and Big Sisters and the American Heart Association. “There are not a whole lot of people who volunteer for those sorts of things,” said Pitstick. “But we know we can always count on Maria to step up to the plate.” Not all 9-1-1 calls have picture perfect outcomes, but as for Maria’s “baby delivery call,” Pitstick says it was the ultimate happy ending. “The babies were transported to the hospital in good condition,” he tells us. “Because of Maria's training, determination and professionalism, there was a very positive ending to a critical call.” Maria’s efforts were recognized by the City of Arlington Dispatch Center with a special award. “One of the things we do in our communications center to celebrate call takers who participate in the EMD program, and actually end up delivering a baby before the emergency people arrive on scene, is to present them in our briefing with a certificate and a stork pin,” said Pitstick. Nowadays, Maria proudly wears two stork pins on her ID badge – a symbolic reminder of that day. |
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