No two days the same for 911 operator

Gina Plastiak answers phones for a living.

That may sound easy, but if she makes a mistake, it could spell the difference between life and death.

Welcome to the sometimes hectic, often stress-filled life of a 911 operator.

Plastiak, 43, of Lockport, works in North Riverside at the West Central Consolidated Dispatch Center. She is on duty from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Plastiak is one of the best in the business, former Riverside police Chief Tom Weitzel said.

Weitzel called her “an experienced and compassionate professional 911 operator,” adding that “those in this profession rarely receive the credit they deserve for the stressful and crucial job they perform.”

She said she appreciates his kind words after 17 years of answering calls from people in various forms of distress.

Plastiak’s career began in 2007 in Berwyn, where she said she “learned a lot as far as being more fast-paced. Your multitasking skills were tested.”

Three years later, she landed a gig in North Riverside. She now also fields 911 calls from Brookfield, McCook and Riverside.

Asked about a typical day, she smiled.

“There’s no such thing,” she said. “People call us on the worst day of their lives a lot of times, so you have to be able to empathize. You have to separate emotion from what you’re dealing with.

“There are times, don’t get me wrong, when certain calls will hit you like dealing with little kids.”

For example, she recently took a call about a choking infant.

“The parents were freaking out,” she said. “The emergency medical screen wouldn’t open, so I went off my memory. [I told them to] flip the kid over and do the back blows. Then I heard the baby cry. Thank God.”

Part of the job is turning off emotions.

“It can’t be taught,” Plastiak said. “It’s something you learn over the years.”

She recalled being nervous at the start of her career “because you have people’s lives in your hands.”

A big key is getting the address correct. She has to listen closely as some streets sound similar, she said.

“Like Fourth and Forest. I ask, ‘Forest like the trees or four like the number?’ ”

Working in a 911 dispatch center requires significant teamwork during hectic times.

“This is not a one-man job,” Plastiak said. “When things start getting busy in there, we have to depend on each other. ... We had an accident the other day where a guy slammed into a car and it ricocheted into a pole. My partner immediately called ComEd. It’s good to have partners like that.”

Work is split three ways.

A call taker takes all emergency and nonemergency calls, such as needing a tow truck or help with a fallen tree.

The fire desk dispatches ambulances.

The police desk deals with all radio traffic on the police band for each of the four towns.

It’s not hard keeping them straight.

“Over the years, you know voices, you know numbers. You can stand someone behind me and I’ll know by their voice who they are,” Plastiak said.

Most of her calls come from Brookfield, followed by North Riverside, which has the shopping mall. McCook has the fewest calls, but it also has about 200 residents.

There are slow days and there are days when she said she will start at 7 a.m., look up at the clock at 1 p.m. “and wonder where the time went.”

Even after 17 years, there are unexpected twists.

A few months ago, she gave a caller instructions on how to perform CPR.

“The family member found someone unconscious. I advised them how to do CPR and [the person] wound up living,” Plastiak said. “That’s the first time in 17 years that I had to do that.”

When she’s not working 911 calls, she and her boyfriend have season tickets to Blackhawks and Cubs games. They also enjoy hiking and camping.

And if not for an attentive police sergeant, Plastiak still may be working in hotels.

She was working as a front desk clerk at the Holiday Inn Express in the Midway Hotel Center at Cicero Avenue and 63rd Street, south of Midway Airport. One day, a Bedford Park police sergeant took notice.

“There would be times when the airport would shut down and the floodgates would open,” Plastiak said. “Working by myself, I’d have 60 people in the lobby [needing rooms].

“He was standing there one day when it happened. He said, ‘You can multitask great. You’d be really good at [being a 911 operator].’”

She decided to apply for a dispatch job in Oak Park. Turned down, she applied in Berwyn.

Plastiak said she can’t stress enough the importance of callers providing all the information that police officers and firefighters need.

A domestic disturbance, for example, has her asking about weapons and intoxication.

A fire? Is everyone out? How many people or pets are still inside?

“Like I said, the days differ every day,” Plastiak said.