A Fort Worth father said his frantic call to 911 Friday night went unanswered after his two-year-old son became ill and passed out.
At about 8 p.m., Flint Shutler gave his parents the scare of a lifetime.
"All the sudden I heard my wife yelling my name," Dustin Shutler said. "I looked over, and my son was slumped over with his eyes shut and completely unconscious."
The little boy, usually so full of life, wouldn’t respond. And his temperature suddenly spiked.
"Shook him gently, said his name a few times, nothing, wouldn't bat his eyes, nothing,” the father said.
Desperate for help, he called 911.
"And it just kept ringing, six or seven times," Shutler said. "Then I got the message saying, 'This is the Fort Worth Police Department. If this is an emergency please stay on the line.'"
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He heard the recording in English and Spanish. Then more rings.
Shutler's cell phone log shows the wait was under two minutes, but he says "it felt like forever."
The police department said it was overwhelmed with calls at the exact same time because of a rolling gun battle between cars on West 7th Street. The cars crashed and then a large fight ensued, leading to a large number of 911 calls.
Shutler was one of eight callers placed in a cue, the city said in a statement, adding that understaffing was not an issue. Based on past call volume, 14 call takers should have been on duty. Friday night, 15 were working.
The father hung up the phone. He and his wife placed their son in the car and raced three miles to the hospital, where the boy had a temperature of 104.9 degrees.
It turned out to be a stomach virus.
Flint is just fine now, but his father is still frustrated.
"911 is supposed to be there," he said. "That's who you call when you have an emergency. It's not, 'Call 911 and hope someone is going to answer the phone.'"
Shutler said he doesn't accept the city's explanation.
"There's nothing worse than holding a two-year-old kid in your arms and he's unconscious and you can't get a hold of 911 to get an ambulance to you," he said.
He said at a time when every second counts, a call to 911 shouldn't end up on hold.
Shutler added he was surprised a 911 operator never called him back. The city's statement did not address that issue.
Matt Zavadsky, a spokesman for the ambulance service MedStar, said some callers are occasionally placed in the cue during peak times.
Callers who hang up and call back will lose their place in line, he said.
Zavadsky added that people should try to avoid hanging up at all so they can still reach emergency services – even if they are heading to the hospital at the time.
