After months of training to be a 911 operator in DeKalb County, Ga., Crystal Morrow was prepared for her first day on the job. During the first half of her shift, Morrow answered several routine calls, including one reporting a burglary in progress and one about a house fire, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.
Then came a call on which she heard what sounded like a familiar voice. "I heard her voice, and I saw her name pop up on the screen. I was like, 'Wait, this is my aunt,'" Morrow told the news station. "I did freeze. Like, I really, my hands froze over the keyboard, but I knew I had to go ahead and get it in."
Her aunt was calling the emergency number because Crystal's father had gone into diabetic shock.
"Because of so many people being in the room, I didn’t think that I would get the call, and it's crazy that I got it on the very first day," said the rookie 911 operator.
Morrow used her training to remain calm and process the emergency call from her aunt. Morrow talked her aunt through each of the emergency steps while never revealing her own identity.
"She handled it well. She took the entire call," Danielle Harvey, who trained Morrow for the job, told the news station. Harvey said that taking calls from family members is addressed with trainees from the first day.
"She got up after it was over and went out. So I checked on her and told her to go see about her family," Harvey told the station.
Read more at Fox 5 Atlanta.