A quick thinking NYC*EMS Dispatcher, who "had a feeling," is credited with literally saving a six-year-old little girl in Brooklyn, NYC., from her abusive father.
EMS Dispatcher Susan James was handling the heavy-volume operation for Brooklyn EMS, just before Christmas, when a job, from an anonymous source, stated that a five-year-old girl was observed by the caller with bruises and welts on her. The caller believed the child was being abused.
Dispatcher James sent an ambulance crew to respond with the police to the address of 17 Marcus Garvey Blvd in Brooklyn Police Officers Anthony Phillips and Chevin Hutchinson, from the NYPD's 81st Precinct, also were assigned to the '911' call. Both the Police and EMT's Trenton Withworth and Lloyd Anderson from EMS, went to the reported apartment.
The officers interviewed the father, Jose Balbuena, 24, who willingly allowed police and EMS Techs to examine the child in his apartment - his 3-year-old son. Initially satisfied, both PD and EMS closed out the assignment as an "unfounded" run. Dispatcher James, however, was skeptical.
When she reviewed the job on her computer screen, she again saw the specifics of a "5-year-old girl" being the victim. Still flooded by the routine dispatch assignments, James contacted her supervisor, EMS Lieutenant John Kilcooley, and expressed her concerns to him. Kilcooley concurred.
James contacted the same BLS crew that responded to the address, and told them that the call specifically stated a female child was involved. Lt. Kilcooly contacted the NYPD by computer, and advised them to resend their unit to the address.
This time, six-year-old Yanin Balbuena was found by the emergency workers in the apartment. The anonymous caller was correct: the child did have the signs of physical abuse that were reported. The child was removed by the EMS crew to the hospital, and the father was arrested.
Today, December 29, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, in announcing the seven-count indictment of Balbuena, had high praise in the work of all the emergency workers involved. Ms. James was particularly singled out for her professional ability to recognize the situation, and to take the corrective action that saved a child from continued serious abuse, and caused the arrest of the abuser.
(c) Emergency Response & Research Institute, 1995