911 fix planned after ambulance goes to wrong address

An East End 911 system will be upgraded after a dispatcher mistakenly sent an ambulance to an East Hampton address while a former fire chief gasped for breath and later died after a heart attack in his Wainscott home more than 5 miles away, a village official said.

The dispatcher, described as a veteran who personally knew the victim, Lanny Ross, failed to recognize an automatically generated address on his computer screen that correctly put the 911 call as coming from Ross' house at 419 Montauk Hwy., Wainscott, on Nov. 14, said Village of East Hampton Administrator Larry Cantwell.

With a confirmation of that correct address from Ross' frantic wife, the dispatcher typed it in and then incorrectly chose East Hampton from a list of four options that included Montauk, Amagansett and Wainscott - all with an address of 419 Montauk Hwy. Ignoring protocol, the dispatcher failed to ask the caller for a cross street before dispatching an ambulance, Cantwell said.

Asking for the cross street "wasn't done initially, when it should have been, when the protocol required it to have been," he said.

Lanny Ross was 51 years old and had a history of heart problems, said his wife, Sherri Ross, 47. She said her husband was unconscious when she made the 911 call at 8:14 p.m. and the 13-minute wait for an ambulance was "horrific."

"I'm always going to wonder if everything went the way it was supposed to, would things have gone better?" she said. "Precious minutes were taken from my husband."

Cantwell said he did not believe the mistake contributed to Ross' death. "The goal is to get there in nine minutes and an ambulance was there in 11 minutes" following the 8:16 p.m. dispatch of the first ambulance that went toward the wrong address, he said.

"What we are trying to do is improve the data so that it's clearer to a dispatcher to eliminate this from happening in the future," he said.

The family had just returned from a Florida vacation when Lanny Ross was struck by pain in his shoulder, Sherri Ross said. At about 6 p.m., Lanny Ross, who had a heart attack in 2000, began to vomit. About two hours later, she said, he was lying in bed when "he began making this horrible noise, like this gasping for air noise."

Because Ross' 911 call came from a land line, the village computer system displayed the correct address, Cantwell said.

The initial ambulance was en route to the address in East Hampton - a wooded lot - when dispatchers recognized the mistake. After Sherri was asked for a cross street several minutes into the 911 call, a second ambulance reached the house at 8:27 p.m., officials said.

Lanny Ross was taken to Southampton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He had been a volunteer with the Amagansett Fire Department for 30 years, once serving as chief. He worked as a heavy equipment operator with the Suffolk County Water Authority, Sherri Ross said.

While the current dispatch system contains cross streets, Cantwell said, they are not automatically displayed, possibly contributing to confusion. That will be remedied in the coming weeks, he said, and abbreviated community names will also be changed to display full names. No disciplinary action will be taken against the dispatcher."He knew Lanny, and besides the family, no one feels worse about this than he does," Cantwell said.

Excerpts from 911 tape

2:39 into the call

ROSS: He's had a heart attack. He's had two stents put in. Is the ambulance coming? I need help!

FIRST MALE DISPATCHER: Mrs. Ross, I need you to calm down and talk to me, OK?

ROSS: My husband's dying. Why am I wasting my time talking to you?

FMD: Ma'am, is he breathing right now?

ROSS: Barely.

FMD: OK, is he conscious?

ROSS: I can't wake him up.

8:48 into the call

FEMALE DISPATCHER: They can't find the house

FMD: Did you send somebody out to the end of the driveway?

ROSS: Yes, I did.

FMD: What's the nearest street on the corner to you?

ROSS: Town Line. Town Line and Sayres Path

FEMALE DISPATCHER: Oh, --! They said the cross street is Town Line and Sayres Path.

SECOND MALE DISPATCHER: Nearest cross street is Sayres Path and Town Line Road

DAUGHTER: They're not here! They're not coming!

FIRST MALE DISPATCHER: Mrs. Ross? Mrs. Ross? Are you still there?

ROSS: Yes.

12:51 into the call

ROSS: I told you Wainscott!

ROSS: You killed my husband! You killed my husband! What's your name? What is your name? You sent the police to Amagansett. How dare you?

About 15 minutes into the call, Ross says the ambulance has arrived.

Compiled by Zachary R. Dowdy