For many, Christmas is a festive, fun time spent with friends and family in the comfort of a loved one's home. Certainly few would ever think to spend the holiday desperately calling 911 in response to a sudden emergency situation, but that's exactly how one Los Angeles County family spent their Christmas Eve last year. According to a new lawsuit filed against Los Angeles County and Sheriff Jim McDonnell, the “family of an 11-year-old girl who suffered an asthma attack and died on Christmas Eve after multiple 911 calls were allegedly misrouted.” The suit is “seeking more than $5 million in damages.”What happened, though? It all began on the afternoon of December 24, 2017, when the girl, Ashley Flores, began having difficulty breathing. According to the suit, her “16-year-old sister repeatedly called 911 pleading for help.” However, the calls were allegedly “put on hold and then routed to an empty fire station and went unanswered,” according to the family's attorney, Dale Galipo. Additionally, other family members also allegedly called for help during the scary situation and finally connected with a “fire dispatcher after five tries.” To make the matter even more heartbreaking for the family, a doctor at St. Francis Medical Center later told them that “Ashley could have survived had she gotten help more quickly.”

Flag of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department; image courtesy of Ali Zifan via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org

While discussing the case, Galipo said there was “at least a 15 minute delay in reaching paramedics and because of that delay, Ashley died.” He also noted that “desk operations at the Century Station, which include handling incoming 911 calls, had failed three years of internal inspections” and alleged the following:“The deputy sheriff who was sitting at that desk...was totally inadequately trained to do that function...and had been taught to forward calls to the fire station, rather than following the correct procedure of routing them to a fire dispatcher who would reach out to the closest ambulance.”As a result, the family and their legal team is accusing “the sheriff's department of gross negligence,” claiming there were and still are “systemic problems in the emergency dispatch system, particularly at the Century Station.”When responding to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for the sheriff's department declined to comment, but did mention a statement issued earlier on in the case:“We extend our deepest heartfelt condolences to the family on the tragic death of Ashley Flores...Clearly, the death of this little girl is heartbreaking. We have opened an investigation into the incident and until all the facts are clearly established through a thorough review, we will not be able to comment further.”

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Family of 11-Year-Old Girl Allegedly Failed by 911 System Files $5M Claim11-year-old had an asthma attack and died. Her sister called 911, but no one came, family says