PAW PAW (WKZO-AM) — Police, firefighters and EMTs aren’t the only first responders who can make a big difference when a crisis occurs.
There is one group in law enforcement that responds even before they do, and they can make all the difference.
The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department has just awarded a county dispatcher with a “Smartsave Award” for helping save the life of a 15-year-old girl who was suffering from an overdose in early August.
The girl called 911 and dispatcher Mark Graham picked up, but she hung up before responding.
When she refused to answer his attempts to call the number back, he initiated a text session, a new feature of the system in Van Buren County.
He was able to coax the teen into reestablishing communication, and then able to get her location and dispatch an ambulance.
Kalamazoo’s new Consolidated 911 Authority is pursuing establishing texting capacity for dispatchers locally and hope to have it available by the end of the year.
