Re: 911:: personal Tragedies

[Guest guest]

I am so sorry for your loss. It must have been very difficult to share this

with us, but I am glad you did.

-- Beth White wrote:

I was working January 11, 2001 in the calltaker position. ... found a helmet

lying on the ground...they were searching for the person it belonged to. They

were asking if this person had been seen. We then they started asking for the

person by rank 21 LT 2....which happened to be my 27 yr brother.

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[Guest guest]

,

Thanks for sharing that. All too often we read of stories where the dispatcher

and the

victim either know each other or are related. Such as the case years ago where

the

dispatcher took the last call from her road patrol husband, vicim of an enraged

driver

who shot him simply because he didn't want a ticket.

Being in the " business " now of stress reduction I hear many such stories as I

travel

around. When I am asked about how I got into this profession of teaching my

fellow

dispatchers how to cope, I answer " because I have too " .

The reason for that is I really feel there is a bond which goes beyond borders,

which

denotes the brotherhood and sisterhood of dispatchers wherever they may be. My

number one teaching point - is that peer support is the glue that keeps us

together.

Thankfully, I had never experienced the loss of a family member, although I did

lose a

friend - Sgt Burns - to a drunk driver. I did go through a lot in my

last few

years of dispatching as my mother contracted lung cancer while at the same time

my

beautiful wife and best friend contracted colon cancer. If it wasn't for the

support of

those I worked with - taking shifts for me - so I could help my father (at the

time in

his 70s and blind) take care of her, while at the same time caring for my wife,

I don't

think I could have made it through as good as I did.

The stress of emergency dispatching is high enough, but never in any

dispatcher's

wildest nightmare do they imagine an incident so close to home. Hopefully they

are

spared this tragedy. But if it does happen it is good to know that your peers

are there

for you.

Many times the dispatcher in these incidents continue to work, others leave the

profession. You sound as though through the excellent peer support you received

that you have decided to " go oh " and do the job you love. Your experience is

there to

benefit others who may have the same misfortune happen to them.

Thanks for being there.

tp