The dispatcher’s instructions help La. a woman to save her mother-in-law’s life

LACOMBE, La. (KPLC) – Dispatchers are the first point of contact in an emergency, and one Louisiana woman learned firsthand how their job can save lives.

A Tammany Parish 911 dispatcher’s voice became a lifeline, guiding a caller through saving her mother-in-law’s life. This is reported by WDSU.

Diana Burkhart of LaCombe called 911 last month when her mother-in-law started choking.

“And I saw that she was suffocating. And I was on the phone with my husband and I started yelling, you know, like, ‘Oh my God, you know, call somebody,'” Burkhart said.

Burkhart tried to remove food from her throat and even tried the Heimlich maneuver.

“Her lips started to turn blue and she started to feel like she was falling,” she said.

Burkhart didn’t know how to help her, but 911 dispatcher Albert Evans, who has worked at the dispatch center in Lacombe for five years, told her what to do.

“He just told me about it. I have never taken a CPR course. I never did anything,” Burkhart said.

She performed CPR and her mother-in-law started breathing again before first responders arrived. She was then airlifted to hospital and released a few days later.

Burkhart visited the control center to hug Evans and thank him for his help.

Evans said he rarely knows the outcome of an emergency call, but this time he knows for sure his instructions saved a life.

“A lot of times you have to hope that your guidance made a difference,” he said.

Evans said that during an emergency, every second counts, and letting dispatch know where you are as soon as you’re connected can mean the difference between life and death.