Tell Me Exactly What Happened: Dispatches from 911

by Caroline Burau

Overview

“Every day, I think about quitting this job.”?The job of an emergency call operator continues to change: new technology, new drills, new threats to the peace of the community. In this book, the author of Answering 911: Life in the Hot Seat returns, no longer a rookie, with new insights and stories that amaze and astound. ?“I’ve worked with some of the finest, funniest, most caring assholes who’ve ever lived.”?Caroline Burau takes a job in a single-person dispatch center for the city of White Bear Lake, and then becomes a dispatcher for a ground and air ambulance service. ?“There is no beginning to this story, and no end. The dispatch center never closes and the phones never get shut off. There is just call after call after life after death after life again. And so it goes. And we sit in our hot seats: listening, waiting, and answering 911.”?In 31 chapters packed with funny, difficult, and weird stories--and Burau's own sassy attitude--she reminds readers what's necessary to get this job done, and why it's so hard to leave.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681340104
Publisher:	Minnesota Historical Society Press
Publication date:	09/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	949,191
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Caroline Burau is the author of Answering 911: Life in the Hot Seat.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Insomnia 5

2 Small-Town Dispatcher 11

3 Somebody in Charge 19

4 Permission to Pee Denied 28

5 A Whiff of Ammonia 34

6 Regarding a Death 41

7 Monkeys on Typewriters 49

8 Cops 55

9 Missing 61

10 Tell Me Exactly What Happened 66

11 Starting Over 71

12 My People 74

13 Guns in the House 80

14 Doctor Phil Can Kiss My Hot Seat 83

15 Souls on Board 92

16 Silence 100

17 Baby in a Pond 103

18 The Dispatch Diet 109

19 Open Mic Night 114

20 Mothers 118

21 The Call 127

22 Active Shooter 132

23 Communications 136

24 Stella 142

25 Stay-in Alive 147

26 Missing Things 154

27 Jurassic Park 159

28 Babies 163

29 Gottaminute 169

30 Leaving 911 174

31 The Last Day 179

Acknowledgments 183

Editorial Reviews

In my decade as a paramedic, dispatchers guided me into and, more importantly, out of thousands of dangerous situations. Burau artfully and playfully gives a face to that voice and shows us just how rewarding and taxing it is to ask that most basic but critical of questions: How can I help?”
Kevin Hazzard, author of A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic’s Wild Ride to the Edge and Back

“In this powerful memoir, Caroline Burau beautifully captures the tumultuous world of a 911 dispatcher, as she struggles to calm frantic callers, dispatch resources, and offer lifesaving instructions over the phone.”
Kevin Grange, author of Lights and Sirens: The Education of a Paramedic

“Caroline Burau takes you behind the mic in a dispatch center, dealing with multiple calls and handling complaints from caller and crews alike. Burau is an excellent writer who offers welcome insight into the world of 911 dispatch.”
Peter Canning, author of Paramedic: On the Front Lines of Medicine

From the Publisher