A Denver 911 clerk has been put on “investigatory leave” with pay while authorities investigate a complaint that she mishandled a call about a man dying of asthma.
Felton C. Walker, 53, was dead by the time help finally arrived June 19, said his brother Terry Walker of Tallahassee, Fla.
Walker said he and his brother talked often on the telephone, and when he called his brother about 9 that night, “He said he was having trouble breathing and would I call the emergency people for him.”
Directory assistance put him in contact with Denver 911.
“They connected me to a lady dispatcher. I told her what was going on with my brother. He was having an asthma attack and couldn’t breathe.”
But Walker didn’t have his brother’s address, only his telephone number, and the 911 clerk told him she couldn’t find an address with just a telephone number.
After pleading with the woman to help, Walker said, he finally hung up and tried calling some of his brother’s friends to help. None of them answered their telephones.
So, he went back to Denver 911 hoping to get a different clerk. But he got the same woman, Walker said.
“I pleaded with her, and she said ‘maybe’ she would send somebody over there,” he said.
When he later called his brother’s telephone, a neighbor answered and handed the phone to a Denver police officer who was there. The officer told him his brother was dead when they got there, Walker said.
He doesn’t know if paramedics ever were sent to the home, but neighbors tell him they didn’t hear any sirens that night.
Walker believes his brother might have lived if he had gotten help in a timely manner.
Staff writer Jim Kirksey can be reached at 303-820-1448 or jkirksey@denverpost.com.
