Wake EMS responded to single call to save dying man; 911 center admits issue

The family of Steven Tibbetts, 63, a retired Wake County magistrate, has said son-in-law James Pasternak called 911 at 7:57 a.m. that morning when Tibbetts became unresponsive on the way to the hospital.

Pasternak says he pulled into John Heister Chevrolet on Main Street in Fuquay-Varina to get help at 8 a.m. and stayed on the phone with 911 until 8:14 a.m.

Phillip Allen, a Heister Chevrolet employee, who noticed there was a medical emergency, also called 911 at 8:10 a.m.

Help arrived at 8:15 a.m. Tibbetts was taken to UNC Rex Healthcare, where he was pronounced dead.

WRAL learned about the lag time in the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center, which is separate from Wake EMS, and started asking questions late last week.

"Without the investigative reporting of WRAL, no one would know about this," said the Tibbetts' family attorney, Bill Young.

"Their interest is in not only wanting to know what happened, to the extent that it may or may not have helped their father, but to make sure that whatever did happen, and clearly something went wrong, that it's fixed so it wouldn't happen to someone else," he said.

Wake EMS was not notified by the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center of Pasternak's call.

"I can tell you that we arrived with the Wake County EMS ambulance three minutes and 26 seconds after the initial dispatch that we received to that address," said Jeff Hammerstein, the Wake EMS assistant chief.

Wake EMS showed WRAL reporter Amanda Lamb on Wednesday how the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center contacts them directly on their laptops in their emergency vehicles.

"I would simply hit my enroute button to the call. It timestamps it right there," said Donovan Welsh, the Wake EMS district chief. "It actually gives me a confirmation that I have transmitted that information and the 911 center has received that information back."

The City of Raleigh operates the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center. In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson admitted there was an issue with how Pasternak’s call was handled, but they would not elaborate.

Sources told WRAL that the first 911 operator did not dispatch the ambulance because he mistakenly entered the information into a training system instead of the live dispatch system.

"It's an incredibly sad thing that happened. Obviously his family is still mourning his loss," Young said.

Tibbetts retired last year to stay home and take care of his grandchildren.

"(He was) always positive, always treated people with respect no matter what their position," Young said.

Young knew Tibbetts personally.

"I would say a friend of mine actually, a friend to a lot of people around here," he said.