Every Second Counts in Emergencies

The ambulance arrived 47 minutes after the 911 call. By then, it was already too

late. My grandmother had stopped breathing. I was 16 years old, home alone with

her, and I watched her slip away while paramedics searched for our house in

the dark. The dispatcher kept me on the phone, walking me through CPR,

but I knew. I could feel it. She was gone. When the ambulance finally pulled up,

the lead paramedic rushed in, took one look at my grandmother, and just stopped.

His shoulders dropped. He turned to me and asked how long they'd been searching. Twenty minutes looking

for the address, he said. The numbers on our house were impossible to see at night.