Denice Marciner

Trigger warning: Please note that the following call for service involves a juvenile. If you may be sensitive to this type of matter please take note of this and proceed with caution. No names will be used. Welcome to my dispatch troll mind.

This is probably one of my least favorite calls. I sat up and thought about this call for weeks after it happened. And I don’t think I’ve been to this lake in 6 years since this occurred.

I live about 45 minutes away from a very popular lake in the area. It’s so beautiful, but also super unpredictable. (which for the first time doesn’t actually play into this story.)

On this particular day – I had already taken so many boat calls. And they were becoming so scary for me because I’m responsible for getting the location of someone on a lake and has no clue where they started from. While yes the concern is where are they, the most significant concern is what happens when/if they can’t get back on the boat. Because truthfully – in one of the deepest lakes in the world – we won’t find them until the dive team is available to do a body recovery.

But it’s graduation season which means boat rentals are through the roof for those kiddos. And celebrations are in full swing. Officers are surrounding the area just in case.

I get the pleasure of receiving a call from a young lady. It take forever to get their location because she doesn’t know where she is and because she’s so far out in the lake mapping is extremely delayed in updating. She tells me her friend fell into the lake. So as I am waiting for mapping to update I’m talking to her to figure out if the kiddo is back on the boat.

But it sounds like there’s a Kid and Play house party on that thing and service is horrible. So finally we figure out where they are in the lake and the kiddo is back on the boat.

Sweet – I believe that my troubles are over. I go through my questions.

Is he awake? “Not really.”

Is her breathing? “I don’t know.”

Well – are you looking at him? “Yes.”

Can you tell me if his chest is rising or if you hear any breath coming in or out of him.

“Well they’re doing CPR.”

Hey man what the fuck do you mean they are doing CPR. *My inside thoughts*

“They’ve been doing CPR for about 40 minutes.”

Are you joking my ass? *More inside thoughts*

Now I know there are only children on this boat in the middle of the lake. Can you please take me the person doing CPR? Also is there someone available to drive the boat to the shore to meet the officers?

Now I can hear the agonal breathing from this kiddo, and I can also hear the pounding of his chest at extremely erratic speeds.

Hey bud – I can hear you doing CPR I want you to take a break and let someone else take over it sounds like you’ve been going for a while.

“I’m good ma’am. I can keep going.”

“Alright buddy. Then here’s where I want you to place your hands *provides instructions to make sure doing correctly* and I want you to listen to my counting. Each pump needs to be on my count. Lets go.”

“1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4….” For the entire 10 minutes it takes to get back to the beach that felt like an eternity. An eternity where I couldn’t tell them what I already knew. They’ve been doing CPR for 60+ minutes.

Their friend is already dead.

He died on the day of his graduation. A day that signifies he has his whole life ahead of him. And it’s gone in the blink of an eye.

And gosh dammit. Where are the adults? Their adults? My adult?

These are the only types of calls where I get a clear idea of the ending. Someones life was taken from them. But only the folks on the boat know exactly what happened. And while it haunts my dreams not having answers – I’m sure it’s changed their entire lives on a day that signified they have the rest of their lives ahead of them. I hope they did something with them in their friends name!!