CUYAHOGA COUNTY, Ohio — An Ohio man died Thursday after frantic calls by family to 911 went unanswered.
“I don’t know. I’m heartbroken. I don’t have words. My husband’s gone. He’s gone,” wife Cheryl Frusteri told WJW.
Vince Frusteri started having a medical emergency around 4 a.m. Cheryl Frusteri and another relative tried calling 911 but no one answered.
“What’s going through my mind is, like, how can nobody answer 911?” Cheryl said. “I was terrified. I was petrified. It’s 911 for Pete’s sake.”
She eventually called a hospital. A worker there then alerted police and paramedics.
“She can’t get through to 911,” the employee said.
First responders arrived to the house, but it was too late. Vince Frusteri had died.
Cuyahoga County officials said the issue was caused by a power distribution failure at the 911 center. A dispatcher noticed the issue and called the company to get a technician to repair it. Still, it took 85 minutes to transfer the calls to a working phone line. A dispatcher called the family back about two hours after they had called 911.
County officials said they are investigating the incident.
Cox Media Group
