February 4, 2025 • 24 mins
It’s a situation no one ever expects -- walking into work and discovering a coworker unresponsive. In this episode, we talk about what to do in those first critical moments, how emergency responders handle the scene, and what happens while waiting for the coroner to arrive. Jimmy shares a firsthand experience from a past job, and a similar event witnessed by one of our vendors. Plus, we take a behind-the-scenes look at 911 dispatchers -- the challenges they face and why calling for help is just the beginning.
Don't miss this fascinating episode! We promise to keep it light and informative, despite the difficult topic.
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jimmy (00:00):
what's happening.
It's your boy, jimmy, and yourgirl, megs, with another life
and safety podcast.
Uh, I see dead people.
That's the title of today'spodcast.
Um, uh, so I've gotten thisquestion a couple times.
Um, in class, believe it or not?
(00:22):
And we actually had a in class,believe it or not?
And we actually had a person,one of our vendors, come in and
share the story with us that oneof their co-workers passed away
in their office.
So obviously it's not ideal whenanybody passes away, but what
(00:44):
are some of the things thathappen when people pass in the
office?
So, first and foremost, when wecome across somebody in
distress and we don't know we'renot doctors or paramedics we
can't really pronounce peopledead.
There are some obvious signs ofdeath.
(01:04):
We're not going to get intothat too much today, but,
believe me, you'll know, you'llknow when you'll see it.
Now I'll share my story andthen I'll share the story of
(01:26):
what happened with our vendor,our teammate.
So years and years ago, backwhen I was a seasonal
firefighter, I was working as acontract security guard, slash
EMT and I used to do thatbecause, first, first off, I got
to write my own schedule andI'd almost always give myself
(01:49):
the weekend off that's nice yeahand I got to work as much as or
as little as I wanted to,because the company was
contractually obligated to haveEMTs on the site, so and they
had their own ambulances andeverything.
So it was super easy money.
I didn't have to deal withanybody, so to speak, Unless of
(02:11):
course somebody got hurt.
And that was fine.
Easy money, All good.
I had gotten in that morningwith a shift supervisor, that
morning with a shift supervisorand we were getting a call.
(02:32):
The graveyard person wasgetting transitional phone calls
from this lady and it ended upbeing the person's wife.
But she called and said hey, Ihaven't been able to get a hold
of my husband.
This is his office number.
Can you go check on it?
In this particular buildingeverybody had their own offices.
It was really cool and one ofthe big things we would do there
(02:54):
was people would lockthemselves out of their office
all the time and we'd just goopen the doors and let them in.
So super easy money.
Um so super easy money.
So like, um, same time peoplestart showing up to work.
Right Six in the morning,people are showing up and
they're like, hey, this alarm'sgoing off.
(03:15):
It's really annoying.
And it's we're in this officeand it sounds like it might be
coming from this office andwe're like, oh, man, it's the
same office.
So we started putting two andtwo together.
We're like, oh's the sameoffice, so we start putting two
and two together.
We're like, oh, I wonder ifsomething happens.
So we get up there and bang onthe door no response, go through
our procedures of trying to getsomebody to respond, which
(03:38):
infuriates everybody else in thearea that already called to
complain about the guy's alarmclock because we're being on the
door.
So we're like, all right, we'regonna go in, we're gonna go in.
So we walk in and the person umwas basically already in rigor
mortis.
He was already stiff head backand he was in a chair and
(04:01):
somehow the way the chair isbalanced, just like that, he was
spinning.
Think of like old, like sci-fimovies or like that.
When you see, like the bad guyspin around in the chair.
It was like that, but it keptgoing like a ballerina in a
(04:23):
jewelry box.
Oh my god and we were like, huh,he did, you know.
And the guy that was thesupervisor at the time was like
he was also an emt and he's likewe needed to do something.
(04:44):
And my response to himliterally was, when you say we,
you mean you, because there'snothing we can do for that guy.
Uh, I said let's call 9-1-1 andhave them come out.
And he said, well, if they comeout, we got to start CPR.
And I was like we don't have tostart CPR, we just need to come
(05:06):
out and make sure that thiswasn't foul play or something.
And we need to start callingour bosses.
And he was pretty adamant aboutdoing CPR and I said, all right
, man, if you want to do CPR, gofor it.
I got your back, but you'restarting.
And he had only done transportambulance work, so he'd never
(05:27):
really been kind of in the heat,if you will.
So he started seeing CPR andhe's like this is really tiring.
I go yeah.
And I was giving breaths.
And I go yeah, do you want toswitch?
And he goes yeah, and I go cool, we didn't switch, it was over
(05:47):
Because 911 showed up.
And so 911 showed up and wewere like, hey, guys, sounds
like a fire.
This is what happened.
So we found them.
They're like what are you guysdoing CPR for that guy's
obviously dead.
What are you guys doing CPR forthat guy's obviously dead?
Now you have to think thisperson had been dead for hours.
(06:21):
Mm-hmm, when we pulled him outof the chair, he was still
pretty stiff.
Mm-hmm, when we pulled him outof the chair, he was still
pretty stiff.
So his arms went down but hislegs stayed the same.
So think of when you see thecartoon characters that are like
dead, like dead animals likethat, with the hands and the
(06:43):
feet in the air.
That's how this guy's feet were.
That's crazy and that's why Iwas like dude, what are we doing
, man, this guy's?
We shouldn't be doing this.
So the fire department showed upthere.
They laughed at us, um, youknow, gave us the business a
little bit, which was fine, allgood, and then the ambulance
(07:05):
never showed up.
You know, they got busy things,they got things to do.
So what we ended up doing wascovering the person, locking the
door and waiting for thecoroner to show up.
Now we you us, unless you're acoroner are not certified to
(07:26):
move dead people.
So if you're just a dead personin the office, things like that
, nobody is allowed to move them, unless you're going to
obviously render medical aid orsomething like that.
But for the most part, we don'tmove them.
They actually have to stay inthe office or where you found
(07:47):
them to the corner, can pickthem up, and, depending on how
busy it is, the corner could behours.
You know, now our vendor storywas a lot different because they
obviously were not, you know,emergency responders.
Right, they weren't trained todo those things, whereas we were
(08:10):
, and I'm sure it was supertraumatic for him yeah you know,
not trained, not able to dothings um let's tell the story
yeah, so again.
So again, I wasn't here.
I was actually teaching out andabout when our vendor came and
(08:30):
told the story.
The gist of the story is weactually a coworker, went to
offer the other coworker a snacklike a donut or a bagel or
something like that in themorning and thought the
co-worker was asleep.
Uh, so they circled back andtalked to the co-worker and was
(08:58):
like, hey, I don't think thisperson's asleep, this person may
be dead and we have a specialguest joining us now at this
point, mrs Life Safety.
It's Jenny, and she was toldthe story and you heard what I
(09:19):
said already.
Right, about just a little bitof what you heard.
So basically, the person thatpassed away they thought were
sleeping, the person offeringthe donuts or whatever the snack
was the communal meal thatmorning came back and was like I
don't think he's actuallysleeping, he might be dead.
Got that right so far.
Jenny (09:42):
Yeah, I mean I don't know if they thought that they were
actually quite dead yet, justthat something was wrong, got it
, something wasn't right, so Iimagine they went in and checked
on the person.
Jimmy (09:57):
Yeah, so person gets checked on or suggested they
should be checked on, and theperson they went to I assume has
never had anything like thishappen to them in their life and
it's probably a safe assumptionfor that.
And the person freaked out.
They didn't know what to do andthat happens.
(10:18):
It's okay, team, to freak out alittle bit.
It's okay to freak out.
I freaked out.
You know, that person gotanother person and then 911 was
called right At that point.
Jenny (10:32):
Yep.
Jimmy (10:34):
Now I'm going to let Jenny kind of tell this part of
the story, because I'm a littlehazy on.
There was a there was an issuewith the 911 call and I'm gonna
let Jenny talk to that.
Um good, yeah.
Jenny (10:45):
So they called 911 and I don't know how they determined
that they believed the personwas beyond reviving, that there
wasn't anything that they coulddo for that person anymore, but
they felt that that there wasn't.
And so while they're on thephone with 911, they get
transferred to the medicalpeople.
(11:06):
How does that work?
Jimmy (11:09):
So what happens is 911 actually has a little screen, a
little program.
Think of it like the Windowsicons.
When you open up something,something else opens up.
Something else opens up.
So that's why they ask you somany questions, so they can then
render care or help you givecare and they can talk you
(11:30):
through it.
So I assume the 911 operatorwas like hey, start doing these
things.
And the person that we know wasprobably like no, I don't think
we should do that because thisperson's gone right.
(11:54):
Obvious science, like I saidearlier before jenny walked in,
when you know, you know theperson's dead or not could be
revived yes, and that, andthat's that's how they felt
while they were on the phonewith them, which I get feeling
that way.
Jenny (12:10):
But then the they said that they were transferred from
the operator to somebody else,so whoever this medical person
was that they were talking to,um ask them to do certain tasks.
I don't know what those were.
I didn't get all those detailsand they're like, but they're
(12:33):
gone, Like why would I do thatif this person is not alive
anymore?
And the 911 person said well,are you refusing to render care?
Are you refusing to take careof this person?
Our vendor was like, well, no,like I'm not, but there's
(12:55):
nothing to be done anymore.
And I felt really bad becauseit sounded like a really
difficult interaction.
Right, why are they asking meto do this?
Because there is nothing that Ican do, and maybe the person on
the phone that was asking ifthey were refusing to render
care sounds like maybe theyweren't all that nice about it
(13:16):
either.
Jimmy (13:17):
Absolutely, absolutely Right.
Refusing to render care soundslike maybe they weren't all that
nice about it either, orabsolutely, absolutely right.
So the person receiving thosephone calls they're getting all
of these weird dramatic callsall day, you know summer, you
know could, yeah, just think ofall the emergencies that these
folks have to listen to Now.
(13:39):
First, what happens is there'sa phone person that answers the
phone call and then they have tokeep answering phone calls and
dispatching right, they have todispatch it to services and
there's other call takers andthen there's other people that
take that and get moreinformation and then also talk
to the police or to the fireengine or to the ambulance,
(14:00):
right.
So that's why it gottransferred, that's why it soon
happened.
Um, now that person knows atenth of the information that
you've given.
So when you call 911, thatperson says what's your
emergency?
And you think, I think there'ssomebody you know might be dead.
In our thing, they're going togo.
(14:20):
Oh, okay, let's help thisperson, let's give this person
the best chance of survival.
You know, maybe if our point ofcontact said we found our
coworker and I think they'vebeen dead a while, it might have
been a different conversation.
Jenny (14:38):
That totally makes sense, because the person on the phone
doesn't know.
Jimmy (14:42):
Exactly.
Jenny (14:42):
As much as you do, right, they don't know what's in your
head.
They can't read your mind.
Jimmy (14:46):
They can't see it.
Jenny (14:47):
Right.
So all they think is thatyou're just like, yeah, I'm
scared, I'm not going to do this.
Yeah, even though, yes, you'rescared, but you feel there's
nothing to be done.
Jimmy (14:59):
Absolutely.
And the 911 operators they wantto take care of people too,
right, they have their capes on,they want to save people.
You know, and it's hard when,because the short time I was in
(15:20):
a dispatch center after I gothurt, one of the first things I
figured out was it was superhard because you don't get
closure and you don't get tolike help.
You just get to send somebodyand go, hey, go help that person
, and you have no idea whathappened.
You just answer another phonecall.
So it's very hard on them and Iget that and I get that.
I get that.
Now the other interesting factum well, first off, 9-1-1 never
(15:45):
showed up, right like fireengine.
The ambulance never showed up,or they did, or did you get that
information?
Jenny (15:49):
I don't know, yeah, I don't know, yeah, but before we
jump ahead.
You know, if we were to go inand find somebody that way, how
would you know that it's toolate to perform CPR, or
something like that?
Like how would you know what ifmaybe the person had just
(16:11):
passed out and you should do CPR?
So I'm sure there's no hardline answer, but.
Jimmy (16:21):
There is, and we were.
I alluded to it earlier beforeyou walked in, so full
disclosure.
It's also, though, like I don'ttotally want to get into it,
but you know, when you knowyou'll see the person, their
face is going to be different,the skin color is going to be
different for that person.
Jenny (16:43):
You'll know there's a smell sometimes if they've been
for a while.
Jimmy (16:47):
Depending on how long, but also usually you smell is
waste.
Their body avoids themselves.
Jenny (16:55):
So after just approximately how much time can
you still perform CPR?
Like if it's been 30 seconds aminute, three minutes, five
minutes, 10 minutes, 30, like atwhat point you know what I mean
.
Like how would you even, andyou don't know how long they've
been sitting there?
So it's lots of unknowns.
Yeah, and that's the hard partis that there's so much unknowns
(17:15):
and there's so many factorsthat go into it.
Jimmy (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, when the story I told, when I found
the dead guy, when I worked atthat place I worked at I was,
you know security guard EMT.
He had blood in his throat, inhis under neck, he had blood
(17:41):
underneath his arms, like theblood pooled in all the low
spots and I was like he's notalive, you know, and that's
usually takes like an hour orplus for that to happen.
So, like you know, that's whyI'm just trying to keep it very
vague.
Jenny (17:59):
You'll know when you know I feel like I yeah, you would
just know.
But then maybe that's somethingyou have to relay if you're on
the phone with 911, right,absolutely information when in
doubt, just say what you see tothem.
I would say, be not necessarilyas descriptive as you can, but
(18:21):
being vague on the phone callwith 911 isn't going to help you
and isn't going to help theperson and isn't going to help
the people trying to help.
Jimmy (18:30):
Absolutely no.
That's a good point, megs andJen.
That's super good points.
But paint a picture.
Paint a picture and let themknow.
And, and and, jen, that's supergood points, you know, but
paint a picture, paint a pictureand let them know.
Jenny (18:50):
So the next part of the story is that then they had to
wait a really long time for thecoroner to come, like multiple
hours, and that's also rough,because you're what do you?
There's a dead person rightthere.
Jimmy (18:57):
Right.
Jenny (18:58):
And what do you do?
And you, but you have to stayright, especially if you're in
your place of work, right, youdon't?
Jimmy (19:06):
just leave and lock the doors.
Jenny (19:07):
Yeah Right, and that's somebody that you care about,
that your coworker and friendslikely to write, or your family
member or sure, sure.
Jimmy (19:20):
So you know the story I told earlier.
You know, we covered the person.
You know, put jacket over andput a blanket over, you know,
and just try to isolate them,don't have to mess with it.
You know, let the person justkind of, you know, be, crank the
air conditioning if you can,right, we don't want them to get
too warm and start to smell tomake its point, all right, but
(19:44):
that takes a while.
That takes a while, I mean ittakes hours and and if they are
there, you know if they have tobe found, and they're there the
whole day, and then it is whatit is.
But again, don't move theperson.
It's against law.
You, the coroner has, is theonly person that can move them,
unless you're going to renderaid, right?
So, um, something you just haveto deal with and why does it
(20:07):
take so long?
Jenny (20:08):
like you think that I mean like I could see maybe like
no rush, that they're not goinganywhere, but like why does it
take so long?
Jimmy (20:19):
Busy day, there might have been a lot of dead people
in the county.
Jenny (20:23):
Ouch yeah.
Jimmy (20:25):
Yeah, I mean I can't tell you what the manning is of
corner folks that get to pickpeople up, but I would imagine
there's no more than four to sixpeople a day.
Jenny (20:36):
Three, three vans, you know, picking somebody up,
moving them and think of I guessthat process takes time right,
not just getting there, butwhatever that process is
afterwards, how they have tohandle them and where they have
to take them.
Jimmy (20:54):
Yes, those processes.
Oh, those processes andjudgments and things like that
happening right, but there'sdocumentation that has to be
done, there's lots Lunch has tohappen, there's lots of things
that happen, you know.
So it could be hours.
I know one of our clientsunfortunately had somebody pass
(21:18):
and they did CPR on them.
They did the best they couldand the ambulance showed up.
They helped and they're like,oh man, they got there, they set
up their monitors Like thatperson's dead, and didn't pick
them up and put him on thegurney and take him away.
They left him and it's like,what about the body?
(21:39):
They're like, yeah, the coronerwill come pick him up and like
walked away and it was on thismanufacturing floor.
So they were like we can'tleave the guy there.
And they leave the guy thereand they were like where do you
want to put them?
And they're like we got aconference room over there,
let's put them in there.
(21:59):
Today literally picked him up,put him in a conference room,
put him on the conference tableawkward conversation to have
isn't it though yeah uh, butthat's what happens,
unfortunately.
Unfortunately, you know, andthink of like after a disaster,
an actual disaster, if there aredead people at your work,
technically you can't move them,the corner has to move them,
(22:21):
you know weird things weirdchink in the system.
Alright, team.
Well, that's a story.
So what do?
So?
Our takeaways from this podcastcall 911 paint up a good
picture and expect the worst.
That's a story.
Our takeaways from this podcastCall 911.
Paint up a good picture, expectthe worst, the worst being that
person is going to be sittingthere with you for a while.
Jenny (22:46):
One little side note is, if there's any doubt about it,
if you're like are they reallydead?
Provide aid.
Jimmy (22:54):
After you feel comfortable with it, for sure,
start CPR.
And if you don't know CPR,reach out to your boy, jimmy,
and Jenny and Megs atlifesafetycom.
Email at lifesafetycom.
That'll go to Jenny, not me.
She's better with that stuff.
Anyways, facts, be safe, becool and we'll see you next time
(23:18):
.
Peace.
what's happening.
It's your boy, jimmy, and yourgirl, megs, with another life
and safety podcast.
Uh, I see dead people.
That's the title of today'spodcast.
Um, uh, so I've gotten thisquestion a couple times.
Um, in class, believe it or not?
(00:22):
And we actually had a in class,believe it or not?
And we actually had a person,one of our vendors, come in and
share the story with us that oneof their co-workers passed away
in their office.
So obviously it's not ideal whenanybody passes away, but what
(00:44):
are some of the things thathappen when people pass in the
office?
So, first and foremost, when wecome across somebody in
distress and we don't know we'renot doctors or paramedics we
can't really pronounce peopledead.
There are some obvious signs ofdeath.
(01:04):
We're not going to get intothat too much today, but,
believe me, you'll know, you'llknow when you'll see it.
Now I'll share my story andthen I'll share the story of
(01:26):
what happened with our vendor,our teammate.
So years and years ago, backwhen I was a seasonal
firefighter, I was working as acontract security guard, slash
EMT and I used to do thatbecause, first, first off, I got
to write my own schedule andI'd almost always give myself
(01:49):
the weekend off that's nice yeahand I got to work as much as or
as little as I wanted to,because the company was
contractually obligated to haveEMTs on the site, so and they
had their own ambulances andeverything.
So it was super easy money.
I didn't have to deal withanybody, so to speak, Unless of
(02:11):
course somebody got hurt.
And that was fine.
Easy money, All good.
I had gotten in that morningwith a shift supervisor, that
morning with a shift supervisorand we were getting a call.
(02:32):
The graveyard person wasgetting transitional phone calls
from this lady and it ended upbeing the person's wife.
But she called and said hey, Ihaven't been able to get a hold
of my husband.
This is his office number.
Can you go check on it?
In this particular buildingeverybody had their own offices.
It was really cool and one ofthe big things we would do there
(02:54):
was people would lockthemselves out of their office
all the time and we'd just goopen the doors and let them in.
So super easy money.
Um so super easy money.
So like, um, same time peoplestart showing up to work.
Right Six in the morning,people are showing up and
they're like, hey, this alarm'sgoing off.
(03:15):
It's really annoying.
And it's we're in this officeand it sounds like it might be
coming from this office andwe're like, oh, man, it's the
same office.
So we started putting two andtwo together.
We're like, oh's the sameoffice, so we start putting two
and two together.
We're like, oh, I wonder ifsomething happens.
So we get up there and bang onthe door no response, go through
our procedures of trying to getsomebody to respond, which
(03:38):
infuriates everybody else in thearea that already called to
complain about the guy's alarmclock because we're being on the
door.
So we're like, all right, we'regonna go in, we're gonna go in.
So we walk in and the person umwas basically already in rigor
mortis.
He was already stiff head backand he was in a chair and
(04:01):
somehow the way the chair isbalanced, just like that, he was
spinning.
Think of like old, like sci-fimovies or like that.
When you see, like the bad guyspin around in the chair.
It was like that, but it keptgoing like a ballerina in a
(04:23):
jewelry box.
Oh my god and we were like, huh,he did, you know.
And the guy that was thesupervisor at the time was like
he was also an emt and he's likewe needed to do something.
(04:44):
And my response to himliterally was, when you say we,
you mean you, because there'snothing we can do for that guy.
Uh, I said let's call 9-1-1 andhave them come out.
And he said, well, if they comeout, we got to start CPR.
And I was like we don't have tostart CPR, we just need to come
(05:06):
out and make sure that thiswasn't foul play or something.
And we need to start callingour bosses.
And he was pretty adamant aboutdoing CPR and I said, all right
, man, if you want to do CPR, gofor it.
I got your back, but you'restarting.
And he had only done transportambulance work, so he'd never
(05:27):
really been kind of in the heat,if you will.
So he started seeing CPR andhe's like this is really tiring.
I go yeah.
And I was giving breaths.
And I go yeah, do you want toswitch?
And he goes yeah, and I go cool, we didn't switch, it was over
(05:47):
Because 911 showed up.
And so 911 showed up and wewere like, hey, guys, sounds
like a fire.
This is what happened.
So we found them.
They're like what are you guysdoing CPR for that guy's
obviously dead.
What are you guys doing CPR forthat guy's obviously dead?
Now you have to think thisperson had been dead for hours.
(06:21):
Mm-hmm, when we pulled him outof the chair, he was still
pretty stiff.
Mm-hmm, when we pulled him outof the chair, he was still
pretty stiff.
So his arms went down but hislegs stayed the same.
So think of when you see thecartoon characters that are like
dead, like dead animals likethat, with the hands and the
(06:43):
feet in the air.
That's how this guy's feet were.
That's crazy and that's why Iwas like dude, what are we doing
, man, this guy's?
We shouldn't be doing this.
So the fire department showed upthere.
They laughed at us, um, youknow, gave us the business a
little bit, which was fine, allgood, and then the ambulance
(07:05):
never showed up.
You know, they got busy things,they got things to do.
So what we ended up doing wascovering the person, locking the
door and waiting for thecoroner to show up.
Now we you us, unless you're acoroner are not certified to
(07:26):
move dead people.
So if you're just a dead personin the office, things like that
, nobody is allowed to move them, unless you're going to
obviously render medical aid orsomething like that.
But for the most part, we don'tmove them.
They actually have to stay inthe office or where you found
(07:47):
them to the corner, can pickthem up, and, depending on how
busy it is, the corner could behours.
You know, now our vendor storywas a lot different because they
obviously were not, you know,emergency responders.
Right, they weren't trained todo those things, whereas we were
(08:10):
, and I'm sure it was supertraumatic for him yeah you know,
not trained, not able to dothings um let's tell the story
yeah, so again.
So again, I wasn't here.
I was actually teaching out andabout when our vendor came and
(08:30):
told the story.
The gist of the story is weactually a coworker, went to
offer the other coworker a snacklike a donut or a bagel or
something like that in themorning and thought the
co-worker was asleep.
Uh, so they circled back andtalked to the co-worker and was
(08:58):
like, hey, I don't think thisperson's asleep, this person may
be dead and we have a specialguest joining us now at this
point, mrs Life Safety.
It's Jenny, and she was toldthe story and you heard what I
(09:19):
said already.
Right, about just a little bitof what you heard.
So basically, the person thatpassed away they thought were
sleeping, the person offeringthe donuts or whatever the snack
was the communal meal thatmorning came back and was like I
don't think he's actuallysleeping, he might be dead.
Got that right so far.
Jenny (09:42):
Yeah, I mean I don't know if they thought that they were
actually quite dead yet, justthat something was wrong, got it
, something wasn't right, so Iimagine they went in and checked
on the person.
Jimmy (09:57):
Yeah, so person gets checked on or suggested they
should be checked on, and theperson they went to I assume has
never had anything like thishappen to them in their life and
it's probably a safe assumptionfor that.
And the person freaked out.
They didn't know what to do andthat happens.
(10:18):
It's okay, team, to freak out alittle bit.
It's okay to freak out.
I freaked out.
You know, that person gotanother person and then 911 was
called right At that point.
Jenny (10:32):
Yep.
Jimmy (10:34):
Now I'm going to let Jenny kind of tell this part of
the story, because I'm a littlehazy on.
There was a there was an issuewith the 911 call and I'm gonna
let Jenny talk to that.
Um good, yeah.
Jenny (10:45):
So they called 911 and I don't know how they determined
that they believed the personwas beyond reviving, that there
wasn't anything that they coulddo for that person anymore, but
they felt that that there wasn't.
And so while they're on thephone with 911, they get
transferred to the medicalpeople.
(11:06):
How does that work?
Jimmy (11:09):
So what happens is 911 actually has a little screen, a
little program.
Think of it like the Windowsicons.
When you open up something,something else opens up.
Something else opens up.
So that's why they ask you somany questions, so they can then
render care or help you givecare and they can talk you
(11:30):
through it.
So I assume the 911 operatorwas like hey, start doing these
things.
And the person that we know wasprobably like no, I don't think
we should do that because thisperson's gone right.
(11:54):
Obvious science, like I saidearlier before jenny walked in,
when you know, you know theperson's dead or not could be
revived yes, and that, andthat's that's how they felt
while they were on the phonewith them, which I get feeling
that way.
Jenny (12:10):
But then the they said that they were transferred from
the operator to somebody else,so whoever this medical person
was that they were talking to,um ask them to do certain tasks.
I don't know what those were.
I didn't get all those detailsand they're like, but they're
(12:33):
gone, Like why would I do thatif this person is not alive
anymore?
And the 911 person said well,are you refusing to render care?
Are you refusing to take careof this person?
Our vendor was like, well, no,like I'm not, but there's
(12:55):
nothing to be done anymore.
And I felt really bad becauseit sounded like a really
difficult interaction.
Right, why are they asking meto do this?
Because there is nothing that Ican do, and maybe the person on
the phone that was asking ifthey were refusing to render
care sounds like maybe theyweren't all that nice about it
(13:16):
either.
Jimmy (13:17):
Absolutely, absolutely Right.
Refusing to render care soundslike maybe they weren't all that
nice about it either, orabsolutely, absolutely right.
So the person receiving thosephone calls they're getting all
of these weird dramatic callsall day, you know summer, you
know could, yeah, just think ofall the emergencies that these
folks have to listen to Now.
(13:39):
First, what happens is there'sa phone person that answers the
phone call and then they have tokeep answering phone calls and
dispatching right, they have todispatch it to services and
there's other call takers andthen there's other people that
take that and get moreinformation and then also talk
to the police or to the fireengine or to the ambulance,
(14:00):
right.
So that's why it gottransferred, that's why it soon
happened.
Um, now that person knows atenth of the information that
you've given.
So when you call 911, thatperson says what's your
emergency?
And you think, I think there'ssomebody you know might be dead.
In our thing, they're going togo.
(14:20):
Oh, okay, let's help thisperson, let's give this person
the best chance of survival.
You know, maybe if our point ofcontact said we found our
coworker and I think they'vebeen dead a while, it might have
been a different conversation.
Jenny (14:38):
That totally makes sense, because the person on the phone
doesn't know.
Jimmy (14:42):
Exactly.
Jenny (14:42):
As much as you do, right, they don't know what's in your
head.
They can't read your mind.
Jimmy (14:46):
They can't see it.
Jenny (14:47):
Right.
So all they think is thatyou're just like, yeah, I'm
scared, I'm not going to do this.
Yeah, even though, yes, you'rescared, but you feel there's
nothing to be done.
Jimmy (14:59):
Absolutely.
And the 911 operators they wantto take care of people too,
right, they have their capes on,they want to save people.
You know, and it's hard when,because the short time I was in
(15:20):
a dispatch center after I gothurt, one of the first things I
figured out was it was superhard because you don't get
closure and you don't get tolike help.
You just get to send somebodyand go, hey, go help that person
, and you have no idea whathappened.
You just answer another phonecall.
So it's very hard on them and Iget that and I get that.
I get that.
Now the other interesting factum well, first off, 9-1-1 never
(15:45):
showed up, right like fireengine.
The ambulance never showed up,or they did, or did you get that
information?
Jenny (15:49):
I don't know, yeah, I don't know, yeah, but before we
jump ahead.
You know, if we were to go inand find somebody that way, how
would you know that it's toolate to perform CPR, or
something like that?
Like how would you know what ifmaybe the person had just
(16:11):
passed out and you should do CPR?
So I'm sure there's no hardline answer, but.
Jimmy (16:21):
There is, and we were.
I alluded to it earlier beforeyou walked in, so full
disclosure.
It's also, though, like I don'ttotally want to get into it,
but you know, when you knowyou'll see the person, their
face is going to be different,the skin color is going to be
different for that person.
Jenny (16:43):
You'll know there's a smell sometimes if they've been
for a while.
Jimmy (16:47):
Depending on how long, but also usually you smell is
waste.
Their body avoids themselves.
Jenny (16:55):
So after just approximately how much time can
you still perform CPR?
Like if it's been 30 seconds aminute, three minutes, five
minutes, 10 minutes, 30, like atwhat point you know what I mean
.
Like how would you even, andyou don't know how long they've
been sitting there?
So it's lots of unknowns.
Yeah, and that's the hard partis that there's so much unknowns
(17:15):
and there's so many factorsthat go into it.
Jimmy (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, when the story I told, when I found
the dead guy, when I worked atthat place I worked at I was,
you know security guard EMT.
He had blood in his throat, inhis under neck, he had blood
(17:41):
underneath his arms, like theblood pooled in all the low
spots and I was like he's notalive, you know, and that's
usually takes like an hour orplus for that to happen.
So, like you know, that's whyI'm just trying to keep it very
vague.
Jenny (17:59):
You'll know when you know I feel like I yeah, you would
just know.
But then maybe that's somethingyou have to relay if you're on
the phone with 911, right,absolutely information when in
doubt, just say what you see tothem.
I would say, be not necessarilyas descriptive as you can, but
(18:21):
being vague on the phone callwith 911 isn't going to help you
and isn't going to help theperson and isn't going to help
the people trying to help.
Jimmy (18:30):
Absolutely no.
That's a good point, megs andJen.
That's super good points.
But paint a picture.
Paint a picture and let themknow.
And, and and, jen, that's supergood points, you know, but
paint a picture, paint a pictureand let them know.
Jenny (18:50):
So the next part of the story is that then they had to
wait a really long time for thecoroner to come, like multiple
hours, and that's also rough,because you're what do you?
There's a dead person rightthere.
Jimmy (18:57):
Right.
Jenny (18:58):
And what do you do?
And you, but you have to stayright, especially if you're in
your place of work, right, youdon't?
Jimmy (19:06):
just leave and lock the doors.
Jenny (19:07):
Yeah Right, and that's somebody that you care about,
that your coworker and friendslikely to write, or your family
member or sure, sure.
Jimmy (19:20):
So you know the story I told earlier.
You know, we covered the person.
You know, put jacket over andput a blanket over, you know,
and just try to isolate them,don't have to mess with it.
You know, let the person justkind of, you know, be, crank the
air conditioning if you can,right, we don't want them to get
too warm and start to smell tomake its point, all right, but
(19:44):
that takes a while.
That takes a while, I mean ittakes hours and and if they are
there, you know if they have tobe found, and they're there the
whole day, and then it is whatit is.
But again, don't move theperson.
It's against law.
You, the coroner has, is theonly person that can move them,
unless you're going to renderaid, right?
So, um, something you just haveto deal with and why does it
(20:07):
take so long?
Jenny (20:08):
like you think that I mean like I could see maybe like
no rush, that they're not goinganywhere, but like why does it
take so long?
Jimmy (20:19):
Busy day, there might have been a lot of dead people
in the county.
Jenny (20:23):
Ouch yeah.
Jimmy (20:25):
Yeah, I mean I can't tell you what the manning is of
corner folks that get to pickpeople up, but I would imagine
there's no more than four to sixpeople a day.
Jenny (20:36):
Three, three vans, you know, picking somebody up,
moving them and think of I guessthat process takes time right,
not just getting there, butwhatever that process is
afterwards, how they have tohandle them and where they have
to take them.
Jimmy (20:54):
Yes, those processes.
Oh, those processes andjudgments and things like that
happening right, but there'sdocumentation that has to be
done, there's lots Lunch has tohappen, there's lots of things
that happen, you know.
So it could be hours.
I know one of our clientsunfortunately had somebody pass
(21:18):
and they did CPR on them.
They did the best they couldand the ambulance showed up.
They helped and they're like,oh man, they got there, they set
up their monitors Like thatperson's dead, and didn't pick
them up and put him on thegurney and take him away.
They left him and it's like,what about the body?
(21:39):
They're like, yeah, the coronerwill come pick him up and like
walked away and it was on thismanufacturing floor.
So they were like we can'tleave the guy there.
And they leave the guy thereand they were like where do you
want to put them?
And they're like we got aconference room over there,
let's put them in there.
(21:59):
Today literally picked him up,put him in a conference room,
put him on the conference tableawkward conversation to have
isn't it though yeah uh, butthat's what happens,
unfortunately.
Unfortunately, you know, andthink of like after a disaster,
an actual disaster, if there aredead people at your work,
technically you can't move them,the corner has to move them,
(22:21):
you know weird things weirdchink in the system.
Alright, team.
Well, that's a story.
So what do?
So?
Our takeaways from this podcastcall 911 paint up a good
picture and expect the worst.
That's a story.
Our takeaways from this podcastCall 911.
Paint up a good picture, expectthe worst, the worst being that
person is going to be sittingthere with you for a while.
Jenny (22:46):
One little side note is, if there's any doubt about it,
if you're like are they reallydead?
Provide aid.
Jimmy (22:54):
After you feel comfortable with it, for sure,
start CPR.
And if you don't know CPR,reach out to your boy, jimmy,
and Jenny and Megs atlifesafetycom.
Email at lifesafetycom.
That'll go to Jenny, not me.
She's better with that stuff.
Anyways, facts, be safe, becool and we'll see you next time
(23:18):
.
Peace.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.