Los Angeles residents are often kept waiting for city rescue crews when nearby L.A. County crews could have responded faster. A 30-year-old plan to link dispatch systems hasn’t been implemented.
October 20, 2012|By Robert J. Lopez, Ben Welsh and Kate Linthicum
Stephanie Hooks pleaded for help after collapsing on the floor of her South Los Angeles home.
“I can’t breathe…. Help me breathe!” the 53-year-old grandmother wailed as frantic family members took turns on the phone with a Los Angeles Fire Department dispatcher, who alerted paramedics at a city station nearly 3 miles away.