The Yeti\’s Cyber Smithy

Failure - 911 and Emergency Services

911 and Emergency Services

First let me say everyone is alright and things worked out fine. I have no doubt there will be many sick children in Columbus, OH this weekend but chances are they will vomit and suffer for a few hours and the nothing more will come of it. But what about next time?

On the way to visit her mother, Aimee stopped at the dollar store with our two children. Aubreyahna, who is 3 ½, spied one of her favorite candies; a push pop. The product was mixed in with the other candies. Aimee purchased two flavors, left the store and proceeded on the trip to her mother’s house. Instead, she found herself in the emergency room of Riverside Hospital. It seems the product, which looks like candy actually contained shampoo. Again, Aubreyahna is fine. Now let me tell you the other side of the story, my side of the story and the complete incompetence of 911 and other emergency systems to respond to a potential public emergency.

Aimee called me in tears and told me the outline of the events. I knew that it was not candy, that it was purchased in a dollar store, that my daughter was puking violently, and that they were at Riverside Emergency room. A doctor or nurse came in and Aimee hung up. I tried to call back, but Aimee had not yet signed the forms allowing for her presence at the hospital to be known. Patient privacy forms. So nobody would let me speak to her despite my pleas.

Believing there was potential for horrific public consequences, I dialed the police department. They told me to call the Health Department, they told me to call the Agricultural Department because it was a prepackaged good. Along each step of the way, I explained that the product was in the store, mixed in with candy, and that other children would probably be eating it soon. Everyone transferred me to another department. Along each transfer, I received one of those messages which says if it is an emergency, dial 911. So I dialed 911 who told me there was nothing they could do unless I knew which dollar store it was. I explained that I could not determine that because the hospital would not let me speak to my wife due to the federal laws concerning patient privacy.

Now there is a police officer at the security desk of the Riverside Emergency room. S/he has a radio which is connected to the Columbus Police department. But could the radio room at 911 call him and ask him to get the information from a nurse? Evidently not.

Well, it turns out that the chemicals in what Aubreyahna and Aimee taught were candy do little more than make one vomit bubbles. But what about next time? In this time of heightened security and concern over threat from terrorists, I wonder which would be more terrifying; poison being sold in the local candy isle or the knowledge that there is absolutely nothing that emergency services can do to respond to such a threat in an timely manner.

Protect your own because nobody else will do it for you.