HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — More lives may be saved in Georgia, thanks to 911 dispatch operators.
As of New Year's Day, all 911 operators in the Peach State are required by law to be CPR-trained and certified.
The state law comes after reports from our sister station, 11Alive, found 80 dispatch centers in Georgia were unable to give CPR instructions.
The Houston County E911 Center, however, has been trained on CPR for decades.
"They are essential to saving lives every single day," Lt. Veronica Edens said.
Edens is the operations coordinator at the 911 center.
Since 2020, she's been training dispatch operators on how to do the job, including providing CPR instructions.
They call themselves the "first first responders," Edens said.
"That dispatcher that's answering that phone, they're the first contact that somebody has to being able to get somebody help," she elaborated.
As the emergency contacts for everybody, the lieutenant says she and her operators must know how to do the job under pressure.
"They need to be confident in what information they're giving the caller, they need to be comfortable to handle that call to make sure it's not overwhelming to them, and they have to know what they're doing," Eden said.
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"It's very important to make sure they're trained appropriately," she emphasized.
On the front lines of 911 call centers, dispatch operators have to exercise strong decision-making skills in situations that could mean life or death for the person on the other side of the call.
"It will impact Georgians in the agencies that either do not do emergency medical instructions or are not certified in that," Capt. Mikki Quinones said. "Now, they will have this basic training that will enable them to give CPR instructions over the phone."
Quinones started working at the E911 center as a dispatch operator. Today, she is the E911 division commander.
She says every day as a dispatch operator is different because every single call is different.
Experts say the first few minutes of your emergency are crucial for performing CPR.
"I just think it's a huge blessing for public safety communications," Quinones said.
The new law states that by 2025, anybody without the mandatory CPR education cannot be certified as a communications officer.