In the rural, rolling terrain of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 911 calls often challenge even the most experienced dispatchers. With sparse cell tower coverage and sprawling properties, relying on traditional location methods can lead to precious minutes lost in the search.
This complexity was put to the ultimate test when an automated message arrived at Litchfield County Dispatch — a silent alert that ultimately hinged on dispatcher instinct, a powerful technology platform, and a hidden layer of data.
For Ryan Ptakowski, Assistant Training Coordinator and a five-year veteran of the center, the call began as a routine fall detection alert. These automated calls are frequent, often caused by misdials, and can be easy to disregard.
However, Ptakowski, a former EMT and active firefighter, relied on his training and intuition. After the automated message stopped playing, he listened closely to the open line. Amid the silence, he heard two distinct sounds: the struggling breathing of the person on the other end and a faint, long dragging noise.
“You can kind of tell the difference between a pocket dial and somebody dragging themselves on the floor,” Ptakowski recalls.
This was not a false call. He had a patient who had fallen hard, and was struggling to move. Now the challenge was pinpointing the patient’s exact location in an area where legacy ANI/ALI data was unreliable.
Ptakowski knew that relying on legacy 911 information would have left them “searching blind” in an area the size of “about a half a city block.” Instead, he immediately turned to the location information flowing through the RapidSOS UNITE platform.
The location data showed the phone’s location bouncing between two parcels of land. The critical difference was a premium feature Litchfield County had integrated: the UNITE GIS Module. This new GIS implementation allowed Ptakowski to not only,
With a single click on the screen, he was instantly able to pull up the public assessor information linked to the parcel data. Cross-referencing the owner’s name with the cell phone’s subscriber data, Ptakowski confirmed the patient’s exact residence. The man, later discovered to be elderly, was inside his home the entire time, unaware that his watch had sent a lifeline.
Because of the speed and accuracy of the data, Ptakowski was able to dispatch the volunteer ambulance directly to the home. “Without the fall detection, that patient could have had a much worse outcome,” Ptakowski reflects. “The patient had almost immediate care based off of the call and the amount of time that the line was open.”
When first responders arrived, they made entry and found the man. He was surprised but incredibly grateful for the timely help. The responders assessed his status and were able to cancel the advanced paramedic unit, transporting him on Basic Life Support (BLS) to the hospital — a good indicator of a favorable outcome.
For Ptakowski, this case is a clear example of the power of connecting technology and human instinct. The integration of the GIS layer, which consolidated multiple steps into “one simple right click with no additional windows,” was the key to saving crucial minutes.
He is a massive advocate for technology in 911.
But for the full picture, premium features like GIS overlays and parcel information layers are a necessity — these are “…arguably needed for all the operations in a 911 center today,” he concludes. “It really does play a significant role in the outcomes of patients… it’s something that centers should be investing in and they shouldn’t overlook.”
