Dial P for Providence
Date: May 21, 2007

The call came in the mid-afternoon on a Friday, one of many that day, but this one was a little different.

No one on the other end of the telephone line would respond. In the background were stressed voices. An adult male was irate and a female child apparently was suffering at his hand, and for that reason, the Floyd Family Medicine Residency Center employee who answered the call didn’t hang up.

The front office personnel began to take action. Someone contacted Floyd’s Information Technology department to see if the call could be traced. Someone else looked through patient records, thinking the call could not have been a coincidence, that the person on the other end of the line probably had called before. Someone called 911, but without specific information, a name or an address, all hands were tied.

While their co-workers sought help, others passed the phone from person to person, each listening for clues.

The horrified listeners determined a man was physically and verbally abusing his daughter, who begged him to quit and said she couldn’t get up. As the abuse continued, the Family Medicine Residency staff was able to determine the man was angry about something that happened at school, and the abuser was threatening further abuse if the child didn’t clean her home before seven o’clock that evening.

“These are moms listening, and they are very concerned,” said Vicki Wiles, administrative director of Floyd’s Family Medicine Residency Center. “They did all the detective work to find out who he was.”

The staff asked Dr. Greg Asbury to listen in. He managed to determine the child’s name, but no other identifying information, and the name didn’t match anyone on the patient list at the Family Medicine Residency Center. Around 7 o’clock, the call abruptly ended without enough information for the staff to get help for the girl.

It was a long night for the Family Medicine Residency staff. The following morning, the staff began calling schools, armed with the girl’s name and the clues they had learned from listening in.

After several calls, one principal indicated a potential identification, although she could not divulge specific information. By day’s end, the Department of Family and Children’s Services had been notified with enough information for an investigation to begin.

“I am very proud of them,” Vicki said. “They picked it up and followed it through as far as they possibly could. They wouldn’t give up. This has inspired a lot of my employees who want to be child advocates or mentors in the system.”

With the authorities now aware of the abuser and the victim, there is one remaining question, Vicki said.

“Why would this person have called us?” she said. “We decided it was providence.”

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