OUR SUCCESSES IN BRIEF April 28, 2008 - Public Safety Dispatcher II Melody MacDonald earned a Red Cross Heroes Award from our local chapter of the Red Cross. Melody will be among 10 Santa Cruz County heroes honored at a breakfast on May 21st. "I nominated her because she embodies everything about what a 9-1-1 dispatcher should be," said Anita, who co-wrote Melody's nomination with her supervisor Margaret. "She has compassion for every caller...no matter how small their complaint." Melody received the award for her work on two calls: helping frantic parents whose baby had accidently suffocated and giving life restoring medical instructions to friends of a woman who attempted suicide. April 26, 2008 - Our public information booth at the Ducky Derby was a resounding success with almost 500 citizens contacted in four hours. The most requested information was, 'What happens after I call 9-1-1?' and 'What supplies should I have on hand in case of an earthquake?' We are always happy when we are able to come to a school or meeting and provide a short presentation on these subjects. March 26, 2008 - Our center has purchased and implemented a software product called "CityWatch", which will allow us to telephone certain geographical groups with public safety information. We have used the product successfully to locate missing children and dependent adults, notifying citizens of hazardous situations (a gas leak) and advising neighborhoods of specific problems to be on the lookout for. The system will allow community members to self-register their cell phones in order to receive notifications. Coming soon... March 10, 2008 - We applied for and received a grant from the Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services to be used for public education. SCCECC will partner with OES to provide information to our citizens about 9-1-1 and disaster preparedness. The funds will be used to purchase handouts and other supplies to give to people who visit our booth. Look for us at several community events throughout the summer. February 28, 2008 - Our Center enjoyed a 100% success rate for our Fire/EMS Academy trainees. Abby, Adrienne, Bill, Jodi, Meghan, Melody and Tammy have been certified by their CTOs and Operations Supervisors as fully trained and ready for deployment on the floor. January 29, 2008 - The entire Red Dispatch Team received a commendation from Lt. Hurley of the Sheriff's Office for their performance during a shooting that occurred in the Live Oak area. Dave, Val, Anna, Beth and Tracy fielded the many 9-1-1 calls that were generated and quickly updated the call with pertinent suspect and location information. Amanda kept the responding law units apprised of all new info including escape routes for the suspects while the rest of the team made sure responding medics knew the exact location of the victim so help could arrive as quickly as possible. "The successful apprehention of the suspects was no doubt, attributed in part by your individual contribultions and your combined team response that day" - Kevin Fink, Operations Supervisor. January 15, 2008 - The entire dispatch team received a commendation from the Chief of the Aptos Fire Department for their handling of a structure fire in which a victim perished. Dispatchers Melody and Karen handled the original 9-1-1 calls, including one from the victim. Dispatcher Jim was on the radio calmly managing the traffic from several fire agencies as they worked to extinguish the fire. The rest of the team supported them in answering the many phone calls and notifiying the law agencies. October 24, 2007 - Melody handled a medical call where the patient wasn't breathing, the victim of an attempted suicide. Melody, who had only recently completed her emergency medical dispatcher training, used her new skills to provide CPR instructions for the young woman, who survived in part thanks to Melody's calm assistance to the citizens on-scene and her expert use of ProQA. September 29, 2007 - The entire dispatch team earned a commendation for its handling of an assault with a deadly weapon call in the city of Santa Cruz. Dispatcher Melanie did an outstanding job getting information from a hostile and uncooperative witness. Dispatcher Meghan was kind and reassuring to a woman who had children at a house neer the scene of the shooting. Adrienne, Ashley, and Lyndsay earned commendations for their teamwork dispatching Santa Cruz police and keeping up with all of the associated radio traffic. Jim dispatched fire and ambulance, while Tammy and Suzie handled went above and beyond handling the other calls for service. June 20, 2007 - Making sense out of chaos sometimes takes a team effort. That was the case this morning, when dispatchers learned that a Capitola police officer was stopping a stolen vehicle in the area of Monterey and Washburn. Although the officer had the suspect at gunpoint, he fled the area and the chase was on! Dispatcher's immediately send Santa Cruz Sheriff's deputies and the Santa Cruz Police Department's K-9 unit to the area to help with the pursuit. Eight minutes later, the suspect hit one of the Capitola police officers with the stolen vehicle, injuring him. The suspect then fled towards the densly populated Capitola Village at 70 mph, quickly crashing the car into a house, which then caught fire! Some 30 minutes after the call started, the suspect ran out of the burning house, was chased down on foot and arrested. Among those dispatchers singled out for the work they did on this call were Suzie and Adrienne, who were calm, professional and never missed radio traffic on their very busy channels. Chuck and Beth coordinated the fire and ambulance response. The job was complicated by the fact the fire department couldn't go into the burning house because of the dangerous suspect, and the police officers couldn't endanger themselves by going in after the suspect becasue the house was on fire. Every dispatcher in the room worked hard making phone calls for the primary dispatchers and answering the many, MANY incoming lines (including calls from the media). Teamwork and professionalism ruled the day. January 23, 2007 - Sometimes, just being the calm, caring voice on the other end of the line is enough to help citizens through difficult experiences. One such person called dispatcher Anna a "lifesaver" for her assistance during a very frightening time. The terrified citizen was reporting a prowler, and said later that she was grateful for Anna's professional handling of the call...offering reassurance while obtaining pertinent information to get help on the scene. January 5, 2007 - Ben helped deliver a baby for the first time in his 20-plus year career on this day. At the other end of the 9-1-1 line was an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer, who's wife had gone into labor and was ready to deliver their second child. Ben expertly led the called through the emergency medical protocols, helping deliver the baby before fire and ambulance arrived on scene. Ben calmly provided the baby's father the exact tools he needed to successfully accopmplish the complicated task without incident.
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