Family Claims Comcast Let Grandma Bleed To Death On Thanksgiving
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2010 8:00 AM
What happens when you have phone service through Comcast and you dial 0 for the operator in an emergency? A family in Florida claims that Comcast's negligence killed their grandmother. The elderly woman bled to death next to her phone while waiting for the Comcast operator and emergency services to figure out where she lived. Now they're suing Comcast.
The lawsuit alleges that last year, a panicked 81-year-old Florida grandmother dialed 0 after a freak crystal dish accident that left her bleeding heavily from her foot. By dialing 0, she reached Comcast's operator, who transferred the call to a police dispatcher. Unfortunately, the Comcast operator didn't have access to the caller's address information. While the operator and dispatcher figured out where she lived, then transferred her to emergency services and waited for help to arrive, the woman bled to death.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which obtained recordings of the woman's phone calls, tried dialing 0 from a Comcast phone. They were greeted with a prompt to press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish, then to press 0 again for an emergency. They did not attempt to call 911 to see what information is available to dispatchers about Comcast customers who call 911 directly.
The recordings show that the woman was in such a state of agony and panic that she couldn't speak long enough to give her address.
More:
http://consumerist.com/2010/10/family-alleges-comcast-let-grandmother-bleed-to-death-on-thanksgiving.html