Wife Waits On Hold With 911 For 15 Minutes As Texas Man Dies Of Heart Attack

A desperate wife had to wait on hold with 911 for 15 minutes as her husband suffered a heart attack and died, said reports.

The Austin, Texas man Cassy Gotcher was found on the floor by his wife, Tanya Gotcher, who immediately dialed 911 — suspecting that her husband was having a heart attack.

Gotcher told the media that she was put on hold for 15 to 20 minutes. Her husband died while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, said reports.

“The phone just ringing, and ringing, and ringing,” Gotcher said.

Gotcher's unfortunate story was recently featured in a campaign ad for Travis County judge candidate Rupal Chaudhari. Cassy Gotcher died in May.

“When you hear the phone ring for 15 minutes and you can’t get to anybody to help you is the worst nightmare that you could have,” Gotcher said.

Austin has been facing issues with its staffing at its 911 dispatch center, causing backlogs and delays in answering callers to the emergency line.

According to Austin City Councilor Mackenzie Kelly, nearly half of the city call center’s 911 operator positions are vacant and 19 out of 75 dispatcher positions are unfilled, said reports.

Austin residents who called 911 in October waited about two-and-a-half minutes for their call to be picked up, according to the outlet.

The city’s 911 call response time lags far behind the national average. About 64% of 911 calls in Austin were answered within 15 seconds, while the national standard is 90% of calls being answered in the same amount of time or less, the media reported.

Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon said the department has been hiring more people to fill the roles and is taking steps to address burnout and raise pay, including stipends and bonuses.

“The City of Austin is planning to make salary adjustments leading to more pay for some existing 911 Call Takers and Police Dispatcher staff to address pay compression that resulted from the recent Living Wage increase,” the city said in a statement.

“These efforts, combined with stipends and the development of a Citywide recruitment campaign, support the retention of existing employees and aim to assist in filling staff vacancies at Austin Police Department’s emergency call center,” the city added.