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You want a memorable 911 call?
John Garcia, a 911 dispatcher, doesn’t want to talk about shootings or car wrecks or house fires or heart attacks. “That’s how you don’t get invited back to parties,” he said.
“I’ll give you one of the more funny calls I’ve had,” Garcia offered. “I had a guy who stabbed himself three times on accident.
“He was making dinner and he was chopping food and he cut the tip of his finger off. What are you always taught? Got to put direct pressure on it. So, still holding the knife, puts direct pressure on his finger and stabs himself in the abdomen. He’s like ‘Oh no’ and he lets go of the knife – blade right into the foot.”
This is not to say that Garcia is heartless or finds humor in the suffering of others. Highlighting the unusual (and injuries that turned out to be minor) is a way to cope with the pressure of being the first person someone calls on what is often one of the worst days of their lives.
Or as he put it, “The stuff you see in the news is real.”
Garcia is one of about 60 people who staff the County’s Department of Public Safety Communications Center around-the-clock. Dispatchers answered 361,249 calls in 2023, about 30,200 a month, from the second floor of the County’s Regional Operations Center in downtown Redwood City.
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