Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / July 22, 1993, edition 1 / Page 15
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under the sun ? ? . y mem, -5 mmmmmm | ; gg^j ? Mgmm THE BRUNSWICIC&WACON THURSDAY. JULY 22, 1993 kW/ss. /aX ir i\ 4, .. > <v WMStl&l v ,C s kA:. B INSIDE THIS SECTION: ? TV Listings , 6-7 ? Sports , 8-11 mmmmmmmm mm as n am SBBS? AMR UIANCE driver and EMT Gayther Simmons maintains radio contact as he races across the Ocean Isle Reach bridge in response to an elderly heart patient with chest pains. A HANK of lights, buttons, telephones, keyboards, microphones, log books and video screens commands the constant attention of 911 telecommunicators. MEDICAL TECHNICIAN Terri Davis checks the flow of intravenous fluids into the patient on the way to the emergency room. It's All In A Day's Work... On The Hotseat With Brunswick 9 1 1 TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC CARLSON Brunswick County 911. ..Do you have an emer gency?" Hour alter hour, day after day, night after night, those words echo through the twinkling hall -darkness of the Emergency Communications Ser vices (911) nerve center. In a scene reminiscent of the Starship Enterprise, crew members in high-backed swivel chairs move pur posefully along a crescent-shaped wall of video screens, keyboards, microphones, tiny red and green diodes and hundreds upon hundreds of color-coded switches. Outside, beyond the cool twilight of central commu nications (C-Com), an insistent morning sun burns through the haze and into the bays where emergency medical vehicles stand ready, their doors left open to vent the heat. It is the third day of a July 4th weekend that has brought a record number of calls for Brunswick Coun ty's Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel. Today they expect more of the same? temperatures near 100 degrees, crowds of sun-baked visitors taking to the highways, too much celebrating, not enough caution. In C-Com, the previous night's shift supervisor, Debra Somerset!, leans across the top of a tclccommun-cator's work station sipping a soft drink, watching the new crew at work, finally beginning to unwind. "This is a job you have to want to do," she says. "If you're in it for glory, you're in it for the wrong reason. Most tclecommunicators have a background as emer gency medical technicians (EMTs) or with rescue squads, so we know what it's like to be out there." Somerset! is a volunteer EMT for Calabash Emer gency Medical Service. She worked with ihe Brunswick County Sheriff's Department for three years before coming to the 91 1 center. Her replacement on this shift, supervisor Wayne Covington, is a former sheriffs deputy and Burlington police officer who served as a military air traffic con troller on Guam during the Vietnam War. The fire and rescue dispatcher is Anna (Catherine Hill, another emergency volunteer who joined the 911 staff after working as an auxiliary police officer for the town of Sunset Beach. Susan Allen is the daughter of a deputy and the wife of an Ocean Isle Beach Police officer. Today she is in the "hot seal," handling the constant barrage of law en forcement radio traffic from sheriff's deputies and a half-do/cn town police departments. In addition to an swering 911 calls and dispatching police and emergency units, Allen must maintain a written record of each offi cer's location and activities. After closing out her log sheets and briefing the in coming shift regarding any pending traffic or ongoing situations, Somersett is ready to go home. "Some days this job is very stressful. And some days it's fun," she says. "But you can't bring your personal life in here and expect to stand it. You leave what hap pens here in here and you leave what happens at home at home." Rrrriiiinng! "Brunswick County 911. ..Do you have an emci gcncy?" Hill has received a call reporting a dead body on Morgan Road in Supply. "How should 1 dispatch this?" she asks Covington, not wanting to transmit too much information over the radio. He suggests referring to the body as "an unre sponsive subject." Hill pushes the button that sets off the pagers of the appropriate emergency units. Then she radios Coastline Rescue and Brunswick County Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Allen calls the sheriff's department. Covington telephones the person who gave the report. He learns that an elderly woman who lived alone has apparently died in her sleep. The body appears to have been lying on a bed for several days in 90-degrce heat. Rescue workers may need breathing apparatus to re move it. "Nice way to start a Monday morning," he remarks. Allen broadcasts a deputy's request that everyone stay back unul police can assess the situation. She picks up a ringing phone and takes a report of a burglary in progress. She dispatches a deputy. Covington takes a call from a woman who says her husband is threatening to kill her. The line goes dead. He reads her address off the video screen, dispatches a deputy and attempts to call her back. "Has he been drinking?" Covington asks. She says he has not. "Does he have a weapon?" he asks. "Not yet.. .but I'm scared," she replies. A man's voice can be heard in the background, yelling and cursing. (See TEAM EFFORT, Page 3-1$) h 1 TELECOM MU NIC ATOR Susan Allen sits in the "hot seat," dispatching law enforcement personnel throughout the county and carefully maintaining a record of each officer's activities and location. SHIFT SUPERVISOR Wayne Covington answers a 911 call and watches the video screen that displays the caller's name, address, telephone number, fire and rescue districts and other information that might be useful in an emergency.
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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July 22, 1993, edition 1
15
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