(Publisher’s Note: Call her a hero and she’ll tell you to stop, but after more than three decades with the 911 Center in Ohio County, what else can she be? That’s exactly why we selected her as the LEDE News “Person of the Year” for 2023, and why we’ve decided to publish this feature again. Congratulations, Theresa, and thank you for your service to us.)
She’s sassy, inquisitive, original, dynamic, amiable, careful, wise, comical, assured, and wired like the world depends on it.
And on most days, someone’s world most definitely depends on it.
She’s Theresa Russell, the director of the 911 Center in Ohio County, West Virginia for the past 32 years. She was hired as a dispatcher in 1989 and promoted to the top of the department just two years later, and now Russell is finally planning her rightful retirement to become official at some point in 2024.
During her career, the 911 Center has changed from a city department to a county agency, emergency services have exponentially expanded, and advancements in telecommunication technology have been introduced at a rapid pace since the advent and implementation of the internet. She and her dispatchers speak daily with first responders with Wheeling’s fire and police departments, and also with the Ohio County EMS and with seven volunteer fire departments.
But only after someone with an emergency dials those digits.
“And you don’t call 911 when you’re having your best day,” said Lou Vargo, the director of the Ohio County Emergency Management Agency. “You’re calling 911 when you need help and you’re under stress because something is very, very wrong. Unless it’s one of those calls about a neighbor’s dog barking or a blocked driveway, someone needs help in the worst way.
“I can tell you the people in Ohio County are lucky Theresa has been the director for as long as she has because she always has her dispatchers ready for anything,” he insisted. “It’s going to be difficult to fill that position because it’s impossible to ever replace her.”
Year after year, firefighters and emergency medical personnel in Ohio County have set new records for the number of times the first responders have been called into action. In 2022, for example, the Wheeling Fire Department answered an all-time record 8,313 emergency calls, an increase of 464 from the year before.
Most often, the responses have not concerned tragedy but instead criminal activity, automobile accidents, small kitchen flames, neighborhood complaints, welfare checks, and yes, calls from homes where someone has fallen and can’t get up.
“You have to want to do it. There’s a commitment there. And to want to be the director of a 911 center takes a very special person who wants to help,” Vargo said. “People have bad days, and if Theresa has to step in, she steps in. It’s not an easy position at all because of everything that can happen on any given day. It’s personal, too, and that can cause issues, too.
“It’s a job not a lot of people even think about. It’s 911, so there’s always someone on the end of the line every day. We take it for granted,” he said. “But Theresa – as the director – hasn’t been able to take 9-1-1 for granted for a lot of years and that’s only one of a lot of reasons I’m happy for her. I think retirement will agree with her.”
Screams in Dreams
At every moment of every day, the next ring is as unpredictable as the last one.
Is it a fender bender? A domestic? Has a grandmother gone wandering?
“Sometimes when you call 911, it’s a medical emergency and the person on the other end of the phone needs to know how to help in those emergency situations. Sometimes a person’s heart has stopped and if the person calling doesn’t know CPR, the dispatcher has to explain how over the phone. Step by step.0
“Theresa can do that and so can her dispatchers because she makes sure they can. She makes sure they are trained to give instructions until the first responders arrive at the scene,” he explained. “That was a program she instituted years ago and it’s spread to other area. I’m sure it’s saved thousands of lives, and it’s helped so much because when people do call, they’re stressed and usually not thinking clearly.”
Russell knows the needs. She realizes it’s nowhere near easy. And some calls haunt her, too. Those are three of the reasons why replacing her is considered a monumental task by Vargo, and by husband Randy, who, by the way, just happens to be the administrator of the Ohio County Commission.
“I think the biggest thing is that Theresa has always been a working director of 911, and that means she’s always been a director who can help, but can also sit in the chair, too,” Vargo explained. “Theresa has great dispatchers that handle the day-to-day operations while she takes care of all of the administrative work, but when we have a major incident going on, she gets right in the middle of it and does everything she can to help.
“If she’s short a person on a shift, she’s always sat right down at the console to take care of things,” he said. “That’s always been one her greatest strengths, and it’s also why her employees respect her. When she is training new employees, they can be sure they’ve being taught by one of the best in the business.”
Russell won’t leave until someone worthy is prepared to sit in the seat. But even then, will she be able to stop protecting the folks in Ohio County?
“Those who have been employed in emergency response for a career have a tough time getting it out of their system, and I don’t think that ever really happens because of the adrenaline. We’re adrenaline junkies, and we know it,” Vargo said with a chuckle. “But now Theresa is retiring and at first I’m sure it will be peaceful. Like I said, I think retirement will agree with her, but I bet she’s going to miss it after a pretty short period of time because I’ve known others who have retired and that’s what’s happened.
“That’s why I’m sure the next time we have a big emergency, Theresa will call whoever the new director is and offer to come in and help. I know she will, and that new director hopefully will be smart enough to say yes,” he added. “These calls get into your dreams because the calls are about fires, accidents, babies not breathing … the worst of the worst. No one calls 9-1-1 to ask how a dispatcher is doing that day. They call because something is very wrong and they are hoping and praying the person on the other side can do something to help. That’s exactly what Theresa has done for almost 35 years.”
