"Are You a Mental Patient?"

I guess there's a reason that soldiers in both Vietnam and Iraq have nicknamed particularly dangerous areas "Little Detroit." A night terror from Motor City:

A boy who was scolded by a 911 operator while trying to get help for his dying mother is not the only Detroit resident whose emergency call wasn't taken seriously by a dispatcher, the boy's lawyer said.

In a series of calls in January 2005, a 911 operator questioned the sanity of a Detroit woman who reported she had been shot in the head. An emergency crew didn't arrive until after the woman called her son and got him to call for help, attorney Geoffrey Fieger said. [...]

In her first call, Lorraine Hayes calmly asked for an ambulance, gave her address and said she had been shot in the head. The operator asked if she was male or female and Hayes stumbled, first saying she was male and then correcting herself.

After some more questions, the operator asked: "Are you a mental patient?"

"My body is numb. I'm getting ready to die," Hayes said at one point.

The operator said she did not believe Hayes would be able to call if she was shot in the head and told her she would get in trouble if she was making a false report. [...]

Robert, then 5, was alone with his mother when she collapsed in the bedroom.

He called 911 and told the operator that his mother had passed out, but the operator asked to speak with an adult.

When he called back about three hours later, he repeated that his mother had passed out. Another operator said: "You shouldn't be playing on the phone." Later, she said: "Now put her on the phone before I send the police out there to knock on the door and you gonna be in trouble."

Police eventually arrived at the house after the second call, but Sherrill Turner was dead. An ambulance never came.

His mother collapsed. He did the right thing. At the age of five.

Attention dumbass operators: "You gonna be in trouble."

Some may remember the infamous story from the early 90s of the boy whose arms were severed in a farm accident. Though totally alone on the farm, he managed to get back to the house and dial 911 with his tongue, only to be challenged by the operator on how he was able to call for help with no arms.

Flav was right: Far too often, 911 is a joke.