Jeri Sprague - Marysville Police Department

On 12/19/2011, one of our senior dispatchers (on duty) began suffering from major head and neck pain. Although this dispatcher never calls in sick, she decided to ask for relief and go visit the local Urgent Care. The doctor, assuming she was suffering from tight muscles in her neck prescribed muscle relaxers and some pain reliever containing blood thinners. After going home and not feeling any better, she decided to go see her personal physician (yesterday), who ran a variety of tests including a cat scan and discovered she was suffering from an aneurism and had blood on the brain. The doctor advised that there is a 25% chance of having a second aneurism in the next seven days, which would likely be fatal if undetected. She was admitted to our local hospital, then later transferred via Reach flight to Eden Medical Ctr. in Castro Valley California.

Her daughter, who also works for us as our acting dispatch supervisor, along with her immediate family traveled to Eden Medical Center to be by her mom's side. Today, she is scheduled to go through a surgery to cauterize the existing aneurism and attempt to prevent future bleeding. She is expected to be at Eden for the next two weeks.

Our dispatch center is feeling the loss of two of our core employees in addition to the temporally loss of two others, who are already out on medical leave, leaving two full time dispatchers and couple reserves to keep our center running 24 / 7.

I'm very proud of our remaining staff for stepping up and keeping the ball rolling in this time of crisis and working back to back shifts through the upcoming holidays.

Because our dispatcher was transferred to Eden, it leaves her family, far from home, staying in the hospital waiting room and a local motel when they are not by her side. If any dispatchers in the Castro Valley areas have a free moment to show their support, I'm sure a quick visit, a card or note of support from your dispatch center would cheer up two of my best employees are going through a hard time and are pretty far from home.

Although they are both proud and private people, I think it would make them feel good to know there is a support network in the 911 family that reaches beyond the boundaries of our local community. Their names are Jeri Sprague (dispatcher suffering from the medical issue) and Kellie Mincer (dispatch supervisor and daughter of Jeri.)

Thanks for taking the time to read this. - Captain Mike Wilson

Marysville Police Department- 316 6th Street - Marysville, CA 95901

Send cards and notes of encouragement to:

Eden Medical Center - Patient Jeri Sprague
20103 Lake Chabot Road
Castro Valley, CA 94546
(510) 537-1234 Main

12/24/11 Update