Cindy Schmidt, M.D., has taken a lot of reference calls at the McGoogan Library.
But, this one was unusual.
Her colleague, Roxanne Cox, was calling from a villa outside of Arrezzo, Italy, and it was urgent.
One of the women traveling with Cox had called her husband, a diabetic, in Albuquerque, N.M. “She could tell he was confused and was probably going to go into diabetic shock,” Cox said. “Then the phone dropped and she didn’t hear any more.”
There were no phones in their rooms, so they asked the villa’s owners to help interpret so they could get an Italian operator to contact a United States operator and call 911. That, unfortunately, didn’t work.
And Cox, head of McGoogan’s reference department, was frustrated. “That kept going on and on, so I said ‘let me call the library. Cindy will be able to handle this.’ ”
And she did. After hearing only scant details, Schmidt called 411 and was connected with the Albuquerque police and then fire department. “I knew it was urgent,” Dr. Schmidt said of the call she received earlier this month. “I’m just glad the fireman believed me. It’s quite a long way around to get a call – from Italy to Omaha to Albuquerque.”
Thanks to Dr. Schmidt’s call, Albuquerque firefighters raced to the address and broke into the house, where they found the man on the floor unconscious. He has since recovered and is doing well.
“Cindy handled it quickly and they got to him in time,” Cox said.
Said Dr. Schmidt: “This is certainly my most unusual reference call.”