While only 911 dispatcher spends 7 minutes on phone ordering pizza, seizure calls go unanswered

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Police in Florida say a 911 call reporting that a man was having a seizure went unanswered because the only dispatcher on duty spent seven minutes on the phone ordering pizza.

The Sun-Sentinel reported that employees at a Fort Lauderdale optometrist office called 911 at least three times while the man had a seizure and eventually passed out, but the calls weren’t taken because the only dispatcher available was on the phone with Poppy’s Pizza taking an order for the office.

The dispatcher, Frances Francois, was given a written reprimand because it was her first offense.

On recordings of the pizza order, Francois apologizes to the order-taker for the noisy phones: “I’m so sorry – it’s real busy.”

KFOR reports that the order was lengthy.

“Let me have one slice of cheese pizza. Let me have a lunch special, the pizza lunch special- two cheese pizzas and a Coke. Let me have the lunch special – two pepperonis and a Coke. Let me have one slice of pepperoni pizza. Let me have a, I guess a cup of, what is it? Pasta fagioli,” the dispatcher was recorded as saying. “Let me have a tuna mini on white bread, provolone cheese. Let me have onions and tomatoes, sale and pepper. I guess, oil and vinegar.”

The man with the seizure was fine in the end.

"I won't place food orders no more,'' Francois later told investigators. “Especially if it's going to jam me up like this. I'm not going to do it no more, for anybody.''