Mom Sues T-Mobile Over Baby's Death

Suit claims glitch prevented babysitter from getting through to 911 after Brandon Alex fell
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 11, 2017 1:48 PM CDT

The mom of a baby who died after his babysitter was put on hold with 911 for more than half an hour has filed a lawsuit against T-Mobile for a system glitch that may have contributed to the boy's March death. The Dallas Morning News reports the complaint filed by Bridget Alex on Monday in Dallas County's 101st Civil District Court is asking for unspecified money for damages and other costs. Alex says her 6-month-old son, Brandon, fell off a bed March 11 while under the babysitter's care and seemed to be seriously hurt. The sitter used her MetroPCS phone (MetroPCS is a wireless service owned by T-Mobile) to call 911 three times, waiting on hold 40 minutes in all, the suit says, including the final call during which she waited for more than 30 minutes.

Alex sped back from a funeral she was at, as the babysitter was without a car, and rushed her son to the hospital, but it was too late: Brandon died within the hour, CBS Dallas reports. Alex's suit not only alleges negligence on T-Mobile's part for not remedying a glitch that reportedly creates phantom 911 calls that then hang up—keeping operators from real callers as they try to call back the ghost callers—but also for not coding its phones to send GPS coordinates to 911 dispatchers in case of hang-ups. On the night Brandon died, there were 422 callers on hold at one point, the City of Dallas reports. Alex tells KTVT she has yet to hear an apology from T-Mobile. "I'm broken," she says. "I have no idea what my next step is. … I don't have Brandon." (More T-Mobile stories.)

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