FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Broward County commissioners honored three 911 dispatchers Tuesday for their calm response to emergency situations.
As first responders hit the road and race to an emergency scene, 911 dispatchers are already on the phone, playing a crucial role by comforting and coaching callers in crisis.
Just ask Jillian Burstein, who guided a pregnant woman whose water broke at 38 weeks while she was home alone with her two small children.
"When you're done with the call, you just kind of take a deep breath and say, 'OK, that actually just happened. This baby just came into this world and that mom is the real hero, because she did this all by herself,'" Burstein said.
Among the most memorable call was one about the deadly mass shooting in Terminal 2 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last year.
"When the first officer came across saying shots fired, your heart kind of stops for a second and then training kicked in," Rosetta Newton, of Sunrise, said.
"Definitely, palms sweating, a little bit of shortness of breath and you're talking on the air, trying to get the updates out because you know how important they are," Broward Sheriff's Office regional 911 dispatcher James Moser said.
In the 15 months since the shooting, the 911 dispatchers say that day is still very much heavy in their minds. But on Tuesday, they were being honored for remaining calm and poised through such a tragic scenario.
The Broward County Commission acknowledged the three special dispatchers with the Tom Gallagher Memorial Public Service Award.
Newton, Moser and Burstein may all work in different offices, but their roles and brave actions on those traumatic days are the same.
"It's very gratifying," Moser said. "We didn't get into this line of work to get an award or any type of thing like that. We really do it to make a difference in the outcome of the people that call."
