Published: June 29, 2009 08:25 am      

FEATURE: "You don't get to grieve here"

The life of the 911 dispatcher

They're the kind of calls we hope never to make, but the kind that 29-year-old Dionne R. Hernandez takes 12 hours a day as a 911 dispatcher for Suwannee County.

Hernandez fields life and death calls. They’re never good, but they’re calls that must be answered. She has been a dispatcher for about seven years and loves it, she said.

"I love this job," said Hernandez. "I like the responsibility of people calling you because they need you."

She said it can be hard at times, however.

"Sometimes it's very stressful because you can have four or five lines with two phones to each ear and be on the radio to log things," she said.

Hernandez said training for the position took about three months. On her first day, her supervisor gave her codes and signals to remember. She told her to memorize a column that night and she would be tested on them the next morning. She said she stayed up all night with flash cards. She passed.

Hernandez said it is her job to calm the person on the other end of the line – not always an easy job.

"You have to talk to people in a soothing way so you can calm them down to get information out of them," said Hernandez.

She said when she first started the job she had to learn to talk with an even tone.

"I had to learn not to come off overly excited because they (law enforcement) read the emotion and tone of your voice. You don't want to get them to get too excited," said Hernandez.

She said she understands those on the other end of the line because she had to call for help once.

"I was so frantic, it's hard being on the other side," she said.

Hernandez said her sister had just gone into labor and was trying to leave the house when the back porch caught fire. The flames were higher than the roof. She said she was the one being told to calm down this time.

Hernandez said she remembers her first call where she had to relay CPR instructions. A two-year-old had fallen into a pool. A frantic mother called 911 and got Hernandez who talked her through the steps. The toddler regained consciousness during the call.

"The little girl started breathing before rescue got there," said Hernandez.

She called the experience "euphoric."

"I felt lightheaded," she said. "I was just dazed and wanted to cry. It makes you feel like you're doing what you're meant to do. That's when I was like, 'yeah this is what I want to do.'"

But the calls go both ways. Hernandez said several years ago she received a call from a man who had struck and killed a teenage girl on US 129 in his semi truck as the girl was walking along the road.

"He was frantic, saying he knows she's dead and he is a murderer," said Hernandez. "He stopped talking and I couldn't hear him crying anymore."

The man had suffered a heart attack and died.

"It made me cry because I kept thinking I was the last person that guy talked to when he died. That's a lot of pressure, a lot of responsibility," said Hernandez.

She said the strangest call she received was about a man who stripped down to his underwear, climbed a power pole and waved at motorists as they drove by.

"The deputies said he was talking about aliens and antennas and getting probed," said Hernandez.

And sometimes she gets calls that let her laugh.

"A lady down in Branford said her neighbor had an air compressor on and that made her mad. She said to send an officer there because they were sucking in her air," said Hernandez.

And then there is the same man that calls more than he should, she said.

"This guy always calls and we answer, 'sheriff's office, recorded line,' and the guy always asks, 'is this line recorded,'" said Hernandez.

But the hardest part of the job so far has been the death of a fellow dispatcher. Nikki Ford died at the age of 25 July 2008 after her car struck a tree head-on on CR 49.

"That was very hard," said Hernandez. "We had no clue (it was her) until the deputy called and asked to run a tag number and it came back to her. I said 'no,' because we just saw her."

"The hardest part was to call in a fellow dispatcher's death," said dispatcher Lori France. "We didn't even have a chance to cry. You go in dispatcher mode even though emotionally you don't think you'll make it."

Hernandez agreed: "You don't get to grieve here."

Sheriff Tony Cameron said it takes a special person to do what France, Hernandez and their co-workers do.

"There are times when they are under great stress due to the types of calls they are receiving," said Cameron. "The lives of both the officers involved and the victims involved is in their hands which puts them under a great deal of pressure."

Live Oak Police Department Officer Kyle Kirby praised their efforts.

"They do a job that's tough, they're our lifeline," said Kirby. "They are the ones that prepare us for what we will see."

Hernandez moved to Suwannee County from Gilchrist in 2000. She is married and would like to start a family one day. Right now she is helping take care of her sister's three kids. She has one other sister and one brother living; Aaron Alexander Thompson died when he was 16 from Leukemia.

The 911 dispatch center had 45,999 cases last year. So far this year that number has reached 23,361.