NEW YORK (WPIX)—
A shocking 911 mixup may have resulted in the death of 6-year-old boy Thursday, and now authorities are investigating what went wrong.According to an official log sheet, the victim's mother frantically called 911 at 9:03 a.m., telling the dispatcher her son was unresponsive and possibly dying.
EMS workers were sent to what they thought was the boy's address at 277 Avenue C in Brooklyn. After arriving at the home at 9:10 a.m., dispatchers soon realized they were at the wrong address. The victim lived at 277 Avenue C in Manhattan.
At 9:22 a.m. -- 19 minutes after the initial 911 call was made -- responders finally arrived to the correct home where they found the victim unconscious. EMS workers administered CPR, but unfortunately, the boy had already passed.
The victim reportedly suffered cardiac arrest. His identity was not immediately released.
The boy's family as well as authorities are now trying to make sense of what happened. According to a statement by NYPD officials, the female caller was "hysterical" and did not provide a borough or cross streets when she spoke to the 911 dispatcher.
Thursday's incident is the latest in a string of cases where emergency responders were sent to the wrong address. In Nov 2009, three men died in a Queens fire after a 911 dispatcher sent fire trucks to the wrong address. In the same month, two children and their father were killed in a fire in Brooklyn after firefighters were again, sent to the wrong address.
Officials are looking into claims that the City's Unified Call Taking system is partly to blame for the mixup. Launched in May 2009, the system connects callers with 911 operators and does not let them speak to fire dispatchers.
The investigation into the 911 mixup is still ongoing.
