A baby at the age of six months named Brandon Alex reportedly died after waiting for the emergency hotline to answer for more than 30 minutes due to clogged 'ghost calls' from T-Mobile phones. Since November, T-Mobile customers who have dialed 911 with their phones have been spontaneously making multiple calls, making the system clogged. At one point, 442 calls on put on hold.
City officials confirmed the babysitter used a T-Mobile device to make the call and no other cell phone carriers seemed to be affected by the "ghost calls" issue.
T-Mobile has not responded with any comment so far. T-Mobile CEO John Legere spoke with Dallas City manager T.C. Broadnax on Tuesday and said crews are dedicated to collaborate with the city until the issue was resolved, officials said.
According to CNN, police are now investigating whether this problem is the cause of the death of Brandon Alex on Saturday. His babysitter claimed that she dialed 911 multiple times without getting an answer each time. Interestingly, the 911 operators returned each of the babysitter's calls but could not reach her, city officials said.
"He was only 6 months," the boy's mother, Bridget Alex, told CNN affiliate KTVT. "It wasn't his time." The sitter said that Brandon fell and went unconscious right after, but when she called 911, no one would answer and she was put on hold for more than 30 minutes after three calls.
The boy's mother drove home and ended up driving her son in a rush to the hospital, she said, only managed to get him medical attention an hour after the babysitter's first call to 911. The baby boy was moved to a second Dallas-area hospital, where his death was certified, according to city officials. The boy's cause of death remains unknown and under investigation, the Collin County medical examiner's office said.
