Jul 21, 2020

Emergency Call Operator Mocks Then Cuts Emergency Call, Causes Ambulance To Arrive Late, Victim Dies

it was a prank or the frustrations of an overworked operator, a callous act of cutting an emergency call caused the life of an elderly man in Thailand.

Pronrawin Ongpisut, the 18-year-old daughter of the deceased is now demanding authorities of Ratchaburi province to take responsibility for whoever cut her call. She believed that the reckless act caused her to lose her father.

According to Pronrawin, she made a third call to the 1669 because she was worried that help wouldn’t come in time for her father. However, the man on the other line mockingly made a “beep, beep” tone and ended the phone call after claiming that he can’t hear her.

Help eventually came for her father but unfortunately, he died upon reaching the hospital.

Pronrawin mentioned that she wasn’t angry at the late arrival of the ambulance but rather the way health worker was teasing when answering her call.

“I want to hear an apology from that man. If my father didn’t die, I wouldn’t complain and would let it go. But right now my father’s dead, are you satisfied? Your salary is from people’s tax money, and you’re supposed to serve the citizens, not joke around with someone’s life-and-death situation like this.”

She demands an apology from the man for his unprofessional behaviour in dealing with distraught members of the public.

However, the hospital director Pichien Wuttisatirapinyo clarified that it was likely a misunderstanding and the operator in question even attended the funeral of Pronrawin’s father.

The operator apologized and explained that he was merely repeating the only thing he heard over the phone when Pronrawin was on the line before the call was cut due to bad connection.

Luahan Wartawan: Even if you can’t understand what she was saying in a state of panic, the first thing that the operator should have done was to calm her down instead of cutting the call.