Transcript of Postal Worker's 911 Call

Nov. 7, 2001 -- Postal worker Thomas Morris, Jr. was one of four people who have died from inhalation anthrax. Hours before his death on Oct. 21, he called 911 and said he suspected he had been exposed to the deadly bacteria at the Brentwood postal facility, which processed the anthrax-laced letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office on Capitol Hill. Here is a transcript of Morris' 911 call:

OPERATOR: "Hello"

MORRIS: "Yes, um, my name is Thomas L. Morris Jr., I'm at 4244Suitland Road in the (inaudible) apartment complex, apartment 201."

OPERATOR: "And what's the problem?"

MORRIS: "My breathing is very, very labored."

OPERATOR: "How old are you?"

MORRIS: "Um, 55."

MORRIS: "Ah, I, I don't know if I have been, but I suspect thatI might have been exposed to anthrax."

OPERATOR: "Do you know when?"

MORRIS: "It was last, what, last Saturday a week ago, lastSaturday morning at work. I work for the Postal Service. I've beento the doctor. Ah, I went to the doctor Thursday, he took a culture, but he never got back to me with the results. I guessthere was some hang-up over the weekend, I'm not sure. But in themeantime, I went through a achiness and head achiness, this startedTuesday. Now I'm having difficulty breathing and just to move anydistance, I feel like I'm going to pass out. I'm here at the house,my wife is here, I'm on the couch."

OPERATOR: "Ok, so you're aching, dizzy?"

MORRIS: "No, no, no, not now."

OPERATOR: "Not now?"

MORRIS: "But I am, my breathing is labored and my chest feelsconstricted. Um, I am getting air, but to get up and walk and whathave you, I feel like I might just pass out and stuff if I stand uptoo long, so I'm just chillin'."

OPERATOR: "Ok, which post office do you work at?"

MORRIS: "This is the post office downtown, um, Brentwood Road,Washington, D.C., post office. (Pause) There was, ah, a woman foundan envelope, and I was in the vicinity. It had powder in it. Theynever let us know whether the thing had anthrax or not. They never,ah, treated the people who were around this particular individualand the supervisor who handled the envelope. Ah, so I don't [know] if itis or not, I'm just, I haven't been able to find out, I've beencalling. But the symptoms that I've had are what was described tome in a letter they put out, almost to a tee. Except I haven't hadany vomiting, except just until a few minutes ago. I'm not bleedingand I don't have diarrhea. The doctor thought that it was just avirus or something, so we went with that and I was taking Tylenolfor the achiness. Except the shortness of breath now, I don't know,that's consistent with the, with the anthrax."

OPERATOR: "OK, you weren't the one that handled the envelope,it was somebody else?"

MORRIS: "No, I didn't handle it, but I was in the vicinity."

OPERATOR: "OK, and do you know what they did with theenvelope?"

MORRIS: "I don't know anything, I don't know anything. Icouldn't even find out if the stuff was or wasn't. I was told thatit wasn't, but I have a tendency not to believe these people. Butanyway, ah, the woman who found it, her name was Helen, she couldprobably tell you more about it than I could. And the supervisorwho was involved, her name is Shirley (unknown).

OPERATOR: "That's your supervisor?"

MORRIS: "No, not my supervisor. Ok, I was on overtime at thetime. I'm on what they call crew 3. And this happened on crew 1.

OPERATOR: "And did you tell your doctor that this is whathappened?"

MORRIS: "Huh?"

OPERATOR: "Did you tell the doctor?"

MORRIS: "Yes, I did. But he said that he didn't think that itwas that. He thought that it was probably a virus or something.

OPERATOR: "I'm going to get the call into the ambulance."

OPERATOR: "And you said that you haven't had the vomiting."

MORRIS: "I just vomited once. The first time was only a few[minutes] ago."

OPERATOR: "And you were exposed to it how long ago?"

MORRIS: "Ah, it's been a week, almost to the hour, not quite.But a little after 2 o'clock on Saturday morning, 2 o'clock a.m. Oreither between 1 or 2, I'm not sure.

MORRIS: "For awhile, I thought I was getting better. This waslike yesterday. But like I said the achiness went away and thefeverishness was dying down. But right now, I'm (mumble) water, soI guess I still have the fever or whatever, or dehydrated, I don'tknow what it is.

OPERATOR: "Okie doke. OK, hold on for a moment."

MORRIS: "I'm trying to put my pants on. So what do Ineed for, just my, my health care is Kaiser. So just bring my cardand my …"

OPERATOR: "Yes. You're gonna need your … did the doctor giveyou any kind of medication or anything?"

MORRIS: "No, he just told me to take Tylenol for theachiness."

OPERATOR: "Yeah, you can bring your medical card with you …um, hold on a second. I have an ambulance dispatched so it shouldbe there shortly."

MORRIS: "OK."

OPERATOR: "OK."

OPERATOR: "If there's anything, if your condition starts toworsen, have your wife give us a call back, OK?"

MORRIS: "All right."

OPERATOR: "All right then."

MORRIS: "Thank you."