fightnight - The first and second woman were one and the same, AFAIK.
As to the rest of you, I still vehemently disagree. First of all, with a child, it is simply too difficult to discern a "prank" call from a real emergency. Also, I don't believe it is part of the dispatchers duties to make such a judgement call. In most localities there are steep penalties for misuse of the 911 Emergency System. You SHOULD dispatch at least law enforcement to EVERY CALL. If it is deemed a prank, then a hefty fine is slapped on the pranker or their parents. If it is not a prank, then the civil servants are doing their JOB. If something like this happened to a family member, I'd fly Fieger down here myself to take the case.
Also, as for something illegal or not... the premise of negligent homicide is that someone died due to your lack of action when action could've been taken to prevent it. Or from
http://www.iejs.com/Law/Criminal_Law...nslaughter.htm, "negligent homicide, is the killing of another person through gross negligence or without malice". Yup, that pretty much fits the bill. And for your Medic/EMT friend, well, I agree that civil suits are a bit overdone these days, but part of working in that industry is understanding risks and being extremely thorough. I still believe that she should be tried for negligent homicide/manslaughter and definitely lose her job without recourse. Seniority my ass...