I have been in a rage over the story about the Detroit five-year-old who was ignored when he dialed 911 in an attempt to summon help for his dying mother.  There is absolutely nothing that anyone can do to make up for his loss.  He was a hero, and all he learned from the experience is that 911 is a joke, and he can’t depend on emergency service operators in an emergency.  It makes me angry and sad.

There are a couple of things that must happen:

• The operator(s) in question need to be fired immediately.
• Detroit 911 needs to impress upon their employees that they must treat each call as an emergency, even if they don’t think it sounds like one.  I should have thought that would have been obvious.  I had always thought that even hang-ups were supposed to mean automatic dispatch.
• The lawyers need to nail the parties responsible to the wall and get this poor child enough money to go to college on.  Not that it will replace his mother, who would still be alive if not for their negligence.

I don’t care how many “prank” calls or non-emergency calls they claim to get each year.  Neglecting to offer emergency services to even one person in need, resulting in any deaths or further injuries, is completely inexcusable.