A dying teenaged hiker lost in the Australian outback was ridiculed by emergency call center workers when he called on his cell phone for assistance.
Out of water, he made six calls to emergency workers, only to be met with scorn and derision.
In his final call to the emergency service, he apologised that he couldn't even remember the name of the track he was on because he was too disoriented. David repeated the word "sorry", to which the operator abruptly responded: "Don't keep saying that ... tell me where you are."
The teenager was also put on hold twice. After his sixth call to the service, he was never heard from again. Eight days later his body was found by rescue teams in a dry creek bed.
David's parents left the court while the harrowing recordings were played.
The NSW Ambulance Service has apologised for the way it treated David and issued a statement saying it had changed its procedures for handling calls from people in remote locations.
Oops, sorry about that. Won't happen again, we promise.
It's terrible that it happened; worse that it was avoidable, if the lad had simply carried the Ten Essentials, as I've mentioned in this blog in the past. In a desert country, as much of Australia is, supplementing the Ten with a solar still would have saved this boy's life.
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