Welcome to another episode of Within the Trenches, true stories from the 9-1-1 dispatchers who live them. Episode 205 is a look back at the last few months of my dispatch career and the calls I took. I recently celebrated my 5 year anniversary of my last day. It’s an episode you don’t want to miss along with a few announcements.
Episode topics –
- Back from vacation
- A look back at the last few months of my dispatch career
- Suicide call – The soon to be ex
- Suicide call – I tried to call you the day you ran your car into a tree
- Medical – Spanish translation
- And more
As always, if you have any comments, questions, or you would like to be a guest on the show, please email me at wttpodcast@gmail.com.
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I know her
It’s interesting how we go through life meeting people, connecting and at times not realizing how one can make an impact on our lives. I have met tons of people so far in my life. Some people are single serving friends and others make an impact whether it is small or large. Sometimes the smallest impact is the one that sticks with you most.Years ago I met someone who, at the time, made an impact on me with her kindness. It was something small but it stuck with me. I met this person at a local restaurant when I started my dispatch career in Florida. I would go to breakfast with my mom and cousin Linda almost every morning and this person was our waitress.
For this story I will refer to the waitress as Jackie. She had the brightest smile and an attitude that made you want to have a good day no matter what. We would walk in and she would greet us by name and treat us like family. She became the highlight of the day. If I was having a bad morning I knew that once I went with my family to breakfast the rest of the day would be great because Jackie would hook us up with a bowl of sunshine.
Now I’m sure many of you reading this have met someone like this in your lives at least once. When you see someone who is always there you become comfortable and sometimes when you become comfortable, things change.
“911 where is your emergency?”
– Heavy breathing from the caller –
“Hello? Are you there?”
“YES! Please help me!”
“What’s your address?”
“145 Mason st, please hurry!”
“Sir what is going on?”
“I just woke up and found my girlfriend laying on the couch. I went to wake her up and when I turned her over she was cold and blue in the face…she’s not breathing.”
I told him that we needed to start CPR and as he fumbled through his response I got the first responders and EMS enroute.
“There is nothing I can do…she’s dead,” he mumbled.
“Are you sure you don’t want to try?”
“I’m sure…”
“Ok. Well, I’m going to stay on the line with you sir.”
All I could do was sit there and listen to him cry. It was hard to hear this but it was my job to be there for this person. He lost someone important to him and I put myself in his shoes for a moment. It would kill me to lose someone close to me whether it was someone who made a small or large impact in my life. I hung up when everyone arrived and sat in dispatch thinking about my caller. I felt bad for him but I kept going like I always do.
The officers returned from the scene and they had pictures. I felt compelled to look and in a weird way I felt that I would get closure from it. I asked for the pictures and my jaw dropped.
“I know her…”
It’s interesting how we go through life meeting people, connecting and at times not realizing how one can make an impact on our lives. I have met tons of people so far in my life. Some people are single serving friends and others make an impact whether it is small or large. Sometimes the smallest impact is the one that sticks with you most.
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Within the Trenches Ep 106
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Welcome to episode 106 of Within the Trenches! This episode is sponsored by Indiana NENA and INdigital, a leader in Next-Gen Core Services. In this episode I sat down with the ladies of Vigo County 9-1-1 Indiana and it was epic! Joining me was dispatchers, Chelsey, Kelsie, Heather and Hanna along with their director Rob “Big Mac” McMullen. There are so many different topics on here that I can’t even begin to talk about it. You have to listen to it to understand.This is a must listen so make sure to check it out and share it up! As always if you have any questions or you want to be a guest on the show you can email the show at wttpodcast@gmail.com.
Episode topics –
- Robbing custard
- “Your Mom”
- “Are you a psychic?”
- And more!
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You sponsor, we advertise!
On June 14 -19 2014 the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) will be in Nashville Tennessee for the annual National NENA conference. This is a fun filled week for 9-1-1 professionals to learn and network through educational courses.Our Industry Partners allow us to put on a great conference. They also provide the latest and greatest of their products to be displayed. I support how important it is for dispatchers to partake in this conference and the amount of knowledge one can take back is truly invaluable.
The Within the Trenches podcast is back along side Mark Fletcher of the Avaya Podcast Network (APN) in the podcast zone! There was an excellent turnout for the podcast zone last year and Within the Trenches helped tell dispatch stories from all over the United States. We also acquired sponsors for the week with advertising on the show, blog, social media outlets and more as a return to those sponsors.
There are three different sponsorship packages that include advertising for each Industry Partner sponsor during the week as well as the life of the show. What this means is once the episode is recorded and released to the public your ad is out there until it is taken down. And as of right now the show is not ending any time soon, and 9-1-1 professionals are joining “Within the Trenches” daily to listen in.
Sponsorships are set up in three tiers.
- Tier 1 for $100 – Your logo will be added to a sign and displayed on the broadcast table during the week at the conference.
- Tier 2 for $200 – Your logo will be added to a sign and on a special page of thejabberlog.com.
- Tier 3 for $300 – (Tier 1 & 2 included) PLUS your business will also be mentioned in an episode of the show
All sponsorship money goes directly to the show for t-shirt giveaways, mug giveaways and any equipment or web hosting needed for the show.
If you would like to be a sponsor please email me for further information at wttpodcast@gmail.com with the subject of “WTT Sponsorship.” I will call you to finalize everything.
Thank you for the support!
