I am a hero!
So here is what happened today...
I'm at work and the phone rings--
A pizza restaurant. This is Malawi's Pizza, I think you've called the wrong number.
Who? I'm calling 225-...[trails off]... the bricks at my house...
[Something tells me to hang on the line until she hangs up. I don't want to be rude and hang up this clearly senile elderly woman. Plus I just have some feeling that I should wait for her.]
Oh, hello. ...the bricks on my house...
Yes, I know ma'am, you need help with the bricks, but you have not reached the right number. This is a pizza restaurant. I'm sorry, but I can't help you with the bricks at your house.
[As soon as I hear these words from her, I internally freak out! I am frozen a little in my thoughts and don't entirely know how to help her as she has been talking very soft and seems very disoriented, which I initially believed to be due to her age. I just thought she was confused that she got the wrong number.]
[Even as I am saying this, I realize it's the wrong question... she is old and hurt and seems very out of sorts already, and figure she can probably not give me the correct information of her children or husband, so I change my thought process...]
...yes... I am a member there... and these bricks, they fell...
I am going to get you help. Where are you ma'am? Are you at your house?
Yes.
What is your address? Tell me your address and I am going to send someone to help you.
And ma'am, what is your name?
Maxinne J******
Okay Maxinne. I am going to hang up now so I can call for help.
[As soon as I have said I am going to hang up I realize I have not asked her for her number so I can call her if the address is wrong or the police need more information...]
Maxinne? Maxinne, hello?? Maxinne!
*dial tone.*
I immediately dial 911 and tell them what has happened.
The operator cannot make sense of the five numbers Maxinne gave me before the street address, but she says she will send out a squad car to the part of the street number that does make sense. She asks me some information about myself and then asks if I'd like a return call once the officers she is sending have been to the house.
Yes, PLEASE!
Once I hang up with the police, I look in the phone history for Maxinne's number, but her call has come from an out of state number and it is blocked.
I am totally frantic [on the inside at least!] and think that I have not gotten enough information for the police. I should have gotten her phone number so I could call her back. What was I thinking!
After five minutes with no return call from the police, I have at least calmed my mind by telling myself that if her number was out of state that means it was a cell phone and that my work number, where she called me, will be saved in her outbox; so it should be easy enough for her to call me back if the help I promised her does not arrive-- due to miscommunication when she was giving me her address. I mean, it is a lot of numbers and she had already dialed the wrong phone number, so she very easily could have mixed up the numbers in her address.
I call Jordan because I am shaking, picturing this poor old woman who is hurt and could easily suffer a stroke or something. She is someone grandma, someones mother... As I'm telling Jordan what happened, I'm cursing myself for hanging up on her, why didn't I think to keep her on the work phone line as I dialed 911 from my cell phone, which was right in my pocket??
As I'm talking to Jordan a local number rings in on call waiting [I'm on my personal cell, so no it's not Maxinne calling me back], it's the police.
The officer says that they have reached the address I gave them and it was correct, Maxinne lives there. She was left alone for a brief moment by her daughter who went to the hospital for something [that is why she was trying to tell me to call the hospital] and she wandered into the neighbors backyard, who's house is undergoing some construction.
I asked if she is okay and the officer said she was.
I asked about the brick that hit her head?
His response was, "What?"
I told him that she told me a brick fell on her head and that is why I had called the police to go check on her. He said simply, that she had wandered into the neighbors yard and the construction made a loud BOOM! which scared her and hurt her ears, I guess, and so she was hearing loud ringing in her ears-- which made sense as to why she seemed to disoriented on the phone with me and wasn't talking in complete sentences and needed me to repeat most things I had said to her.
Apparently she was trying to call the hospital to get a hold of her daughter to come home and so when I asked if she needed help, she said 'yes.' And she had already said a brick fell on her head, [I did not imagine that part. I heard it clearly] so naturally-- I called the police to go help her.
Turns out she was just scared a little lost and very confused and I'm nobodies hero.
But, I am glad I called the police because better safe than sorry. I bet she felt a little embarrassed when her daughter got a call from the police!
So here is what happened today...
I'm at work and the phone rings--
Good Afternoon, Malawi's Pizza, Amber speaking, how can I help you?
Hello?
Yes, hello. Malawi's Pizza. How can I help you?
Hello... hello? Is this ------ [something I can't understand]?
No ma'am, sorry this is Malawi's Pizza. How can I help you?
*more old lady mumbling I cant decipher*
Miss, this is Malawi's Pizza... do you need to place an order?
...the bricks around my house...
Ma'am I think you have the wrong number, this is a pizza restaurant.
...what? ...the bricks around my house... they're all around my house...
I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number. This is Malawi's Pizza.
What? ...who?... I'm calling 225-6 --- [trailing old lady indecipherable mumbling]...
No, I'm sorry, that's not the number you've reached. We are a pizza restaurant.
What? A pizza restaurant. This is Malawi's Pizza, I think you've called the wrong number.
Who? I'm calling 225-...[trails off]... the bricks at my house...
Ma'am, I'm sorry this is a Pizza restaurant. You do not have the right number. Do you want to hang up and try to call the number again? Okay?
........ .....
Okay, I am going to hang up then you hang up and try to call your number one more time because this is not the business you are trying to reach. Okay? You have a nice day, okay. I am going to hang up now. Okay?
Okay.
Okay, have a nice day. Bye.
[Something tells me to hang on the line until she hangs up. I don't want to be rude and hang up this clearly senile elderly woman. Plus I just have some feeling that I should wait for her.]
*silence*
....hello?
Yes, hello ma'am, I'm still here. Oh, hello. ...the bricks on my house...
Yes, I know ma'am, you need help with the bricks, but you have not reached the right number. This is a pizza restaurant. I'm sorry, but I can't help you with the bricks at your house.
...oh... but one fell on my head.
[As soon as I hear these words from her, I internally freak out! I am frozen a little in my thoughts and don't entirely know how to help her as she has been talking very soft and seems very disoriented, which I initially believed to be due to her age. I just thought she was confused that she got the wrong number.]
*me frantically responding*
What? I'm sorry. Ma'am are you hurt? Do you need help?
...the brick fell on my head...
Do you need help? I am going to get you help! Is there someone I can call for you?
[Even as I am saying this, I realize it's the wrong question... she is old and hurt and seems very out of sorts already, and figure she can probably not give me the correct information of her children or husband, so I change my thought process...]
Yes... I am calling Timpanogos... the bricks at my house... Timpanogos Hospital.
Ma'am, you were trying to reach the hospital? ...yes... I am a member there... and these bricks, they fell...
I am going to get you help. Where are you ma'am? Are you at your house?
Yes.
What is your address? Tell me your address and I am going to send someone to help you.
*She tells me 5 numbers*
And what is your street name called?
*She then tells me her street name [which in Utah, is all numbers, like 345 W. 2200 S. can be a complete address, not many street names in Provo area]*And ma'am, what is your name?
Maxinne J******
Okay Maxinne, I am going to send help to your house. Someone will be there to help you very quickly Until then, you just hang on and if you need some one to talk to you call me back here at this number you called. My name is Amber and I am going to send help. If you need to talk to me again you just press redial on your phone. The green button. Okay?
Okay. Okay Maxinne. I am going to hang up now so I can call for help.
Okay.
[As soon as I have said I am going to hang up I realize I have not asked her for her number so I can call her if the address is wrong or the police need more information...]
Maxinne? Maxinne, hello?? Maxinne!
*dial tone.*
I immediately dial 911 and tell them what has happened.
The operator cannot make sense of the five numbers Maxinne gave me before the street address, but she says she will send out a squad car to the part of the street number that does make sense. She asks me some information about myself and then asks if I'd like a return call once the officers she is sending have been to the house.
Yes, PLEASE!
Once I hang up with the police, I look in the phone history for Maxinne's number, but her call has come from an out of state number and it is blocked.
I am totally frantic [on the inside at least!] and think that I have not gotten enough information for the police. I should have gotten her phone number so I could call her back. What was I thinking!
After five minutes with no return call from the police, I have at least calmed my mind by telling myself that if her number was out of state that means it was a cell phone and that my work number, where she called me, will be saved in her outbox; so it should be easy enough for her to call me back if the help I promised her does not arrive-- due to miscommunication when she was giving me her address. I mean, it is a lot of numbers and she had already dialed the wrong phone number, so she very easily could have mixed up the numbers in her address.
I call Jordan because I am shaking, picturing this poor old woman who is hurt and could easily suffer a stroke or something. She is someone grandma, someones mother... As I'm telling Jordan what happened, I'm cursing myself for hanging up on her, why didn't I think to keep her on the work phone line as I dialed 911 from my cell phone, which was right in my pocket??
As I'm talking to Jordan a local number rings in on call waiting [I'm on my personal cell, so no it's not Maxinne calling me back], it's the police.
The officer says that they have reached the address I gave them and it was correct, Maxinne lives there. She was left alone for a brief moment by her daughter who went to the hospital for something [that is why she was trying to tell me to call the hospital] and she wandered into the neighbors backyard, who's house is undergoing some construction.
I asked if she is okay and the officer said she was.
I asked about the brick that hit her head?
His response was, "What?"
I told him that she told me a brick fell on her head and that is why I had called the police to go check on her. He said simply, that she had wandered into the neighbors yard and the construction made a loud BOOM! which scared her and hurt her ears, I guess, and so she was hearing loud ringing in her ears-- which made sense as to why she seemed to disoriented on the phone with me and wasn't talking in complete sentences and needed me to repeat most things I had said to her.
Apparently she was trying to call the hospital to get a hold of her daughter to come home and so when I asked if she needed help, she said 'yes.' And she had already said a brick fell on her head, [I did not imagine that part. I heard it clearly] so naturally-- I called the police to go help her.
Turns out she was just scared a little lost and very confused and I'm nobodies hero.
But, I am glad I called the police because better safe than sorry. I bet she felt a little embarrassed when her daughter got a call from the police!
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