There weren’t any chest pains, no illness or flu-like symptoms for 56-year-old Linda Wonder of Carroll. She was simply stricken, out of the blue, in the early morning hours of Feb. 18th with sudden cardiac arrest. Her husband, Ron, was in the bathroom with Linda when it happened, and his panicked call to 911 saved her life. 911 Coordinator for the city and county of Carroll, Jason Hoffman said a new Emergency Medical Dispatch program that was integrated into their system at the end of 2014 gave his staff the tools they needed to be the bridge between the event and the arrival of first responders. Prior to that, his team reacted with a more limited response.
The dispatcher was able to ask those questions, cue in on what the emergency was and pull up the protocol to give the exact directives needed so Ron could work to keep his wife’s heart pumping blood.
Hoffman said the program saved Linda’s life during a cardiac arrest, but it is also meant to provide instruction for many different types of emergencies.
The Carroll City/County Communications Center is a small one in the scheme of things, but these dispatchers are doing big things for the people of the county. They juggle a lot of different tasks, and are often-times not even aware of the outcomes. Hoffman said learning about Linda’s recovery against the seven percent survival rate odds and the even lower odds of only three to four percent of recovering with no permanent disability has been an impactful, and deeply moving experience for the dispatcher.
The dispatcher, who wishes to remain anonymous, had the opportunity to meet Linda and her husband in person as Linda thanked them for helping to save her life. And, in the days that followed that call, she learned first-hand from the experts just how important it was to her very unique situation. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will hear her side of this story.
