By Doug Oakley, Contra Costa Times
Original publication date: July 8, 2011

When Berkeley 911 dispatcher Kevin Houston took a call the evening of June 1, all he could hear was labored, heavy breathing. Then the line went dead.

Houston immediately knew the person who called 911 on a cellphone was in grave danger. He also knew that, without the person giving her location, it was going to be difficult to find her.

The woman called again. Again the line went dead. Houston called her back. The line went dead again. And another time. The painful agonizing sounds of someone gasping for breath were all he could hear.

Houston didn’t give up though. He kept asking the woman, “Where are you, what’s your location?”

Working with colleague Tyrone McClain, 42, who got paramedics rolling to an area within a square mile of where they thought she might be based on triangulated signals from cellphone towers, Houston kept at it.

Finally he got a location.

“As soon as I had the address I told Tyrone,” Houston said. “It was a big team effort.”

When medics found her in her car at 3322 Adeline St., she was clutching her cellphone in one hand and her inhaler in the other, said Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong. Her heart had stopped, but paramedics arrived in time to resuscitate her and whisk her off to Alta Bates hospital, where she is recovering.

In addition, Houston’s quick thinking allowed him to calculate how many minutes the woman’s heart had stopped before paramedics shocked her back to life. He was able to relay that important information to doctors in the emergency room at Alta Bates, Berkeley Fire Chief Debra Pryor said.

Houston and McClain were honored by the city of Berkeley on Thursday during a ceremony at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

“This is extraordinary teamwork of these two dispatchers,” Dong said. “They were very aggressive about finding this woman.”

Houston, 43, accepted the recognition Thursday in front of fire department brass and well-wishers. His wife and 5-year-old son were in the audience.

“It’s very humbling to be recognized for doing my job,” Houston said. “This is exactly the reason I became a dispatcher, to help people.”

McClain, who trained Houston, was happy to be on stage with him on Thursday.

“Sometimes we don’t get the recognition we deserve for this tireless job we perform,” McClain said.

About the Author
Doug Oakley covers Berkeley. Contact him at 510-843-1408. Follow him at Twitter.com/douglasoakley. 

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