Bilingual Kane County 911 Telecommunicator Recognized for Life-Saving Actions
An employee of Kane County Emergency Communications (KaneComm) was recently singled out for her live-saving actions during a 911 call involving the translation of CPR instructions.
Burlington Community Fire Protection District Chief Mike Tiedt, during a Kane County Judicial and Public Safety Committee meeting, publicly thanked Kane County 911 Telecommunicator Nereida Perez for her crucial role in communicating CPR instructions to a Spanish speaking caller, ultimately saving a life. The following is an excerpt of the letter he read:
Burlington Fire wants to formally recognize and thank Telecommunicator Nereida Perez for her work on February 19th, 2024. Telecommunicator Perez's ability to speak fluent Spanish and her abilities as a dispatcher were key to the successful outcome of the call. She was able to determine the nature of the call immediately and get the appropriate resources dispatched without having to wait for translation. … Too many times the role of the Telecommunicator is overlooked. We in the field cannot perform our job without them. The good ones make our job easier. 
During the 911 call, Perez translated how to perform lifesaving CPR to a Spanish speaking caller trying to help someone who had just been electrocuted, hit their head during a fall and was unconscious and not breathing.
“Telecommunicator Perez is fluent in Spanish so was able to quickly translate our Emergency Medical Dispatch protocols (EMDs) during this emergency," said KaneComm Director Michelle Guthrie.
Guthrie believes this was the first time in the history of KaneComm that instructions on how to perform CPR were translated into Spanish by one of KaneComm's Telecommunicators and not using a third-party translation service, and in this case, it made all the difference.
“In this case seconds mattered and because she translated our EMDs on the fly, she saved critical time. She even counted the compressions out loud with the caller in Spanish," Guthrie added.
Thanks to everyone's efforts, the patient is expected to recover.
Learn more about the work of KaneComm at https://www.kanecountyil.gov/Pages/kaneComm.aspx
