ST. LOUIS- Michelle Otman, her husband and two sons had plans to attend a Cardinals game. But as they pulled into the parking lot downtown, her son, Phelix had a seizure.
The family attempted numerous 911 calls that went unanswered. Michelle eventually flagged down a sheriff's deputy who called got through and the fire department arrived within two minutes. But Felix's seizure started about 30 minutes before.
National standards from the National Emergency Number Association say 90% of calls should be answered within 15 seconds and 95% of calls should be answered within 20 seconds. However, St. Louis has been operating below those standards for years.
The problem came as a surprise to the Otman family, who are from Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
"We did not know the issues that your community is having with 911. Most importantly, we did not know not to hang up." Otman said, "If we hung up, our call would not be answered in the order it was received. That was the one thing I think that would have maybe been great information to have on the recording."
Otman says that she did have talks with the St. Louis fire chief Dennis Jankerson and asked him to make the information publicly available regarding the situation.
Otman was distraught during the incident and was shocked by the response from one EMS responder.
"An EMS woman that was in the first ambulance, we were placed in told me 'Maybe you should have called a taxi since you couldn't get 911,'" Otman said.
The response rubbed the Otman family so badly that they demanded out of that ambulance and waited an additional 30 minutes for another one.
Otman said that when the second ambulance showed up, an EMS on that service gave her a controversial comment too.
"We finally got into the other ambulance and the EMS worker, the young man that was working that day on the way to way to the hospital, just said to me, 'if you're not happy with the delay in our arrival and don't want to see yourself in this situation again. Don't come back to St. Louis'" Otman said.
Otman says she believes that the response was made out of frustration after doing some research on prior incidents before Phelix's around the city.
"I believe that the frustration he's experiencing in his job with not being able to reach, you know, patients loved ones who are calling in emergency situations across the city." Otman said, "That was just the most frightening, hopeless position to be in. Nobody ever told me what to do when 911 didn't answer. They always are supposed to answer."