Brickbat: When Seconds Count

When Louie Bradley fell in the shower of his senior living community in Irving, Texas, he pulled an emergency switch to call for help. Neighbors heard the alarm, but couldn't get into his apartment because of the deadbolt on the door. So they called 911. And called. And called. And called. In total, they called six times before help arrived. The problem is that on the first call the dispatcher sent police to the wrong address. Cops got there, spoke to the resident, found nothing was wrong and left. And when neighbors kept calling they were told the police had already checked it out and everything was fine. 911 didn't send anyone to the right place until a neighbor called it in as a fire, not a medical emergency. But by the time firefighters arrived, about an hour after the first call, Bradley was dead.