A woman in Oakland, California named Caitlin Ditta called 911 on July 4, 2023, after experiencing a severe hemorrhage while breastfeeding her baby, but no one answered the phone for several attempts. According to city audits and grand jury reports, Oakland's 911 dispatch center has struggled with understaffing, long wait times, and mandatory overtime, resulting in over 123,000 callers waiting at least 40 seconds to connect in 2023. The state issued a warning that if the dispatch center doesn't improve response times, it may lose funding, with the goal of answering 90% of calls within 15 seconds. Ditta's experience highlights the critical importance of prompt emergency response in life-or-death situations.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-04,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
On July 4, 2023, Caitlin Ditta had just finished hosting a barbecue with her husband and baby daughter when she felt a strange sensation.
asserted
she → finish → sensation
Ditta, a 33-year-old school therapist living in Oakland, California, had suffered a hemorrhage after giving birth in the hospital a few weeks earlier.
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Ditta → live → hospital
She recovered quickly, but the doctors issued a stark warning: If the bleeding started again, she should seek help immediately.
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she → recover → help
Delaying care could be fatal.
uncertain
Delaying → delay → care
Now, breastfeeding her baby on the living room couch, Ditta felt what she describes as “a rush of something coming out of me.”
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she → breastfeed → me
She hustled to the bathroom, wishing against her own certainty: Please don’t be blood.
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She → hustle → certainty
It was blood—“a murder scene” of it, she says.
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she → say → it
She immediately called 911 and told her husband to do the same.
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She → call → same
But as they dialed and redialed one of the best-known telephone numbers in America, no one picked up.
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one → dial → America
Ditta recalls holding both phones in her hands, panic and disorientation washing over her.
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panic → recall → her
Time seemed to be slowing down.
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Time → seem → ?
She felt certain she would die.
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she → feel → ?
“ It felt like every second counted, because there was blood pouring out of me,” she says.
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she → feel → me
“I was like, ‘Where are the people who are supposed to pick up?’
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who → suppose → ?
Her emergency came at a particularly troubled time for Oakland’s dispatch center.
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emergency → come → center
For years, a slew of city audits and grand jury reports had highlighted the same tangle of problems: There were simply not enough 911 dispatchers to keep up with the volume of calls coming in.
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slew → highlight → calls
Workers faced grueling conditions and mandatory overtime, and the hiring process was chronically slow.
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process → face → conditions
In 2023, more than 123,000 callers—40 percent of the year’s total—waited at least 40 seconds to connect during their emergencies.
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In → wait → emergencies
A few weeks after Ditta’s call, the state issued an ultimatum to Oakland: Answer the vast majority of 911 calls within 15 seconds or risk losing funding.
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state → issue → funding
For emergency callers like Ditta, the stakes of delayed 911 pickups can be life or death.
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stakes → delay → pickups
Studies have shown that administering CPR immediately after a cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chances of surviving.
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administering → show → chances
“The national average EMS response time is roughly seven to ten minutes,” explains Pat O’Neill of Stop the Bleed, a Department of Defense program designed to train the public in emergency care.
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O’Neill → explain → care
“In many of the most severe cases, no emergency system, however well-staffed, can place a professional responder on scene before the survival window closes.”
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window → staff → scene
Dispatchers, who are often trained in emergency procedures, can help in seconds—as long as they’re available to pick up the phone.
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they → train → phone
Ditta had never given much thought to the inner workings of America’s 911 system.
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Ditta → give → system
Like many people, her understanding of the service was rudimentary: Call the number, get immediate help.
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understanding → call → help
The hemorrhage, and what happened after it, shocked her out of those preconceptions.
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what → happen → preconceptions
“What if I had been alone?” she says.
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she → say → ?
“And what if I had bled so much that I passed out?
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I → bleed → ?
When would they have picked up?”
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they → pick → ?
But on the other end of the line, a complex machine is operating, often beyond its capacity.
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machine → operate → capacity
Some are tucked into rural areas and employ just a handful of telecommunicators.
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Some → tuck → telecommunicators
Others function as urban command centers, with dozens of employees answering millions of calls each year.
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dozens → function → calls
The service is funded in large part by fees attached to individuals’ and businesses’ phone bills.
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service → fund → bills
But as tech upgrades have rolled out in recent years, the cost of 911 has outpaced fee revenue, leaving municipalities increasingly on the hook to make up the difference.
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cost → roll → difference
All the while, call volumes have increased.
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volumes → increase → ?
“The 911 system is a part of our core civic infrastructure,” says Rebecca Neusteter, Executive Director of the University of Chicago Health Lab and a leading 911 researcher.
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Neusteter → say → Lab
That—and the fact that it’s largely funded by direct consumer charges—carry “an expectation that people are going to be able to access the care that they needed.”
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they → fund → that
Although there is no federal agency overseeing the performance of 911 centers, one standard holds firm nationwide: “call answer times”—the speed at which telecommunicators are expected to pick up the phone.
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telecommunicators → be → phone
In 2020, a professional organization called the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) established the current benchmark: Dispatch centers should pick up 90 percent of calls in 15 seconds or less.
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centers → call → seconds
…and 115 more, not listed.
