911 - "my kid won't do his homework."

http://www.ems1.com/ems-oddities/articles/932062-Unusual-911-calls-flooded-FDNY-during-blizzard/

Unusual 911 calls flooded FDNY during blizzard
One caller stubbed his toe and told EMTs 'it's been hurting for over an hour'

By Ginger Adams Otis and Heather Haddon
The New York Post

NEW YORK — What is your emergency? My kid didn't do his homework!

Hundreds of crackpot callers tied up overworked EMS units and swamped the 911 system with frivolous calls during the Christmas-weekend blizzard and its snowy aftermath, worsening a deadly backlog of 1,300 jobs, medics told The Post.

A druggie from Brooklyn dialed the emergency operator Monday at 8 a.m., the height of post-storm chaos, to report difficulty breathing — prompting dispatchers to code it as a critical call.

What he really wanted was for paramedics to transport him down impassable streets to his preferred Flatbush methadone clinic.

Another EMS unit got called to a family home in Brooklyn for a sick kid — but it turned out the parents' primary complaint was that their son wouldn't do his homework. They hoped the EMTs could force him to finish it.

Other crazy calls included one from a Bronx man with stomach pains who eventually admitted to medics that "he'd eaten a pizza with everything on it about 20 minutes ago," said one EMT. The patient needed antacids.

One Brooklyn EMS crew got bogged down by a mom who dialed 911 at about 10 p.m. Sunday to report that her 2-year-old daughter was bleeding from the mouth.

Paramedics raced to the scene to discover the tiny tot had taken a minor tumble and suffered a cut lip.

A Staten Island resident waiting two hours for a bus called 911 because "he was freezing," an EMS worker said.

Crews showed up to the stop on Bradley Avenue, and the man wanted to sit in the ambulance and warm up, the worker said. Crews said they could only take him to a hospital, but he refused.

Another caller stubbed his toe and told EMTs "it's been hurting for over an hour."

There was even a call for difficulty breathing that turned out to be a young Brooklynite who had a stuffy nose.

"He kept complaining to us that he could only breathe out of one nostril," said an EMT, who estimated about 25 percent of the 911 calls he handled over the three days of the storm were "for absolute b.s."

Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the FDNY, which runs the EMS system, says it's hard for dispatchers to assess a person's true medical condition over the phone.

"When you have that many calls, not every one is going to be cardiac arrest," he acknowledged. "But it's tough for us to say beforehand that that person should stay home."

A backlog of emergency calls built up overnight on Sunday, Dec. 26, as nearly two feet of snow got dumped on the city, and by the following morning city officials were begging residents to reserve 911 for life-threatening situations.

Each and every one of these people should be prosecuted for making a false emergency call. There is NOTHING funny about tying up valuable resources that could cost truly ill or injured people their lives. Responders who traverse inclement weather to get to them are taking unnecessary risks as well. At the very least they should be fined for their offense, but I honestly believe that they should be prosecuted on a case by case basis. Their sentence should be according to the actual reason for the call and the level of it's ridiculousness, the actual monetary cost of the bullshit, and if anyone was injured or died as a result of their wasting the time of the police or EMS. Perhaps some hefty fines and/or some jail time might deter others in the future.

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If YOU are the "exception" to what I am saying, then why does my commentary bother you so much?
I don't hate your kids, I HATE YOU!

These people should be charged with wasting time and resources... and then beaten with a yard stick. Fucking arseholes. d

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I know, I know. "You were one once." I was a sperm once, but you don't see me wantin' to cuddle up to a fuckin' wankstain, do you? - John Constantine

Disgusting. That's all that I can think to say about these worthless shitheads. Absolutely disgusting.

I've never gotten the homework call, but we get calls like the others ALL.THE.TIME. It's sad and disgusting really. The best one i've gotten to date? A lady who wanted to go to the hospital because she had blisters on her feet from walking. I did an hr of pointe work a day, just for fun, I wanted to show her MY bloodied and blistered feet, but I resisted.

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What is a home without children? Quiet. ~Henny Youngman

I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance. ~George Balanchine

"I took the batteries out of my biological clock and put them in my vibrator"

A homework call? Hold on mam, we're sending CPS. You're not fit to be a parent. The kid goes into the system!
All of these people should be automatically put in jail for attempted murder. No trial!

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" ... what's one more once you've already got two shedding on the couch?"

How is it that these people aren't being prosecuted? They are wasting money and endangering other people. I'd like to see them have to repay the costs, plus a fine, in addition to being charged with manslaughter if someone died because the EMTs were busy with the fuckwit, and endangerment otherwise.