On August 20, 2013 a lifechanging event occurred for dispatcher and supervisor Faye Whitney. With twenty seven years of experience working as a dispatcher, she knows how to handle a crisis. Given her supervisory role, she has mandatory CPR certification, and she is required to know Criteria Based Dispatch (CBD), which set protocols
that match the level of care a person needs with the training of the dispatcher. Some protocols have changed.
For example, CPR: “You no longer need to give breath, there is no mouth to mouth. Just compressions. My
experience with telephone CPR is what helped me that day.”
Faye and her partner Deb were getting a new floor put into their home by a company that subcontracted floor
installers. On the last day working in the house, an unexpected turn occurred. Jack (the main subcontractor) and Faye were discussing last-minute details when they both gazed over to find that his employee Jim had fallen to his knees and slumped face-down.
Without knowledge of his history, Faye was trying to figure out if he had a seizing disorder, or if he was convulsing.
She called 911 — her office — and described the scene. Rolling him to his back, Faye noticed that he was turning
blue. “He’s not breathing, I am starting CPR,” she yelled into the phone. After fifty compressions, he started breathing. That is when she rolled him onto his side, to prevent any hazards from choking. Because her office had already dispatched a car, she hung up. A minute after she closed the call, Jim went blue again. Faye asked Jack
to take over while she called the office again. Jack needed some guidance in CPR, so gave him some instruction.
While on the phone, Faye discovered that Jack had received a stint in the previous year.
Faye instructed Jack to move his work vehicle out of the way of the ambulance. Faye once again started
CPR while yelling to her spouse Deb to watch for the responders. Jim was making noises on the floor, “So
all I could think to do was yell at him ‘come on Jim, come back!” After yelling at him for some time she heard Deb, “They’re here!”
“After that I just went into the kitchen, and was shaking with tears.” Jim started talking again, but then he
lost a pulse. The responders used shock paddles on him, and he finally became stabilized. After originally denying
the input of a defibulator the day he received the stent, Jim finally had the procedure done.
“It’s all kind of surreal, the intelligent side of me knew that I saved his life, the emotional side of me realized
I saved his life.” Lucky for Jack, Faye’s years of training and expertise in emergency services were at her fingertips
that day.
