And Then She Killed Him Read Free Page A

(She gives him the address, but she is crying so much that he can’t understand it.)
    O PERATOR : Ma’am, what is your address? (She gives it again, but he gets it wrong.) Ma’am, you need to calm down. What happened?
    M IRIAM : My husband is dead!
    O PERATOR : I need your address one more time.

    Miriam had grown irritated by now, but she spelled out the address once more, very slowly. Still, the operator couldn’t get it right. He thought it was “Seminole,” and then “Feminoe.” Almost beside herself, Miriam spelled it out again— S-I-M-I-N-O-E. However, her problems weren’t over. The operator couldn’t seem to place Siminoe Road and asked what county it was in. She finally got him to understand that Siminoe Road was in Whitewater, Mesa County. She also said that the house had been burglarized.

    O PERATOR : (turning to someone else in the command center) Someone else was there. A wife found her husband dead. (turning back to Miriam) I have to ask you a couple of questions. What’s the problem? Tell me exactly what happened.
    M IRIAM : He was on the floor. And it was like somebody came in and robbed us. He has blood under his head.
    O PERATOR : Okay. Are you with him right now?
    M IRIAM : I’m in the hallway.
    O PERATOR : How old is he?
    M IRIAM : He’s sixty-two.

    Then, in light of Miriam saying Alan wad dead, the next question must have surprised her.

    O PERATOR : Is he conscious?
    M IRIAM : No!
    O PERATOR : Is he breathing?
    M IRIAM : Nooo!

    There was a long discussion between the operator and someone else in the command room. Perhaps they thought Miriam was so rattled that she couldn’t judge if her husband was really dead or not. The operator asked if she had seen what had happened. She said that she hadn’t. She had just returned home from shopping and found her husband on the kitchen floor.
    The next question must have sent Miriam into a tizzy.
    The operator asked, “Is there a defibrillator in the house?”
    Miriam nearly screamed out, “No!”
    Nonetheless, the operator was going to have Miriam try and revive Alan by cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

    O PERATOR : I need you to lay him flat on his back and remove any pillows.
    M IRIAM : He is on his back.
    O PERATOR : Is there anything in his mouth? (Miriam said there wasn’t.) Okay. I need you to place your hand on his forehead and your other hand under his neck and tilt his head back.
    M IRIAM : He’s all bloody.
    O PERATOR : Where is he bleeding from?
    M IRIAM : It looks like the back of his head.

    The operator talked once again with someone in his office, and then back to Miriam. Despite her insistence that Alan was dead, the operator still began walking her through CPR. He had her do chest compressions, telling her, “Place the heel of your hand on the breastbone in the center of his chest. And then put your other hand on the top of that hand. I need you to push down firmly, two inches, with only the heel of your lower hand touching his chest. Listen carefully. Pump the chest hard and fast, twice per second. You’ve got to do this four hundred times. That’s only three and a half minutes. Tell me as soon as you’re done. I’ll stay on the phone with you.”
    Miriam checked in with the 911 operator every so often, and told him it wasn’t working. In the background, he could hear her crying. Finally, seven minutes into the call, she got on the phone again and said, “It’s not working!”
    The operator responded, “Have you done it four hundred times?” She answered that she was still working on it, but it wasn’t helping. Then he had her change tactics. The operator said, “I’m going to have you do mouth-to-mouth. With his head tilted back, pinch his nose closed and completely cover his mouth with your mouth. Then blow two regular breaths into the lungs. About one second each. The chest should rise with each breath.”
    After Miriam did that a few times, he asked her if she had felt any air going out. She answered no.