The line that help didn’t cross

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Alvin Hooks calls 911

Just be­fore 5 a.m. on Feb. 21, 2009, Alv­in Hooks woke to find his wife, Stephanie, strug­gling to breathe in the liv­ing room of their South L.A. home. He dialed 911 to ask for help.

She would soon go in­to car­di­ac ar­rest, in which the heart sud­denly stops beat­ing. When that hap­pens, sec­onds can can mean the dif­fer­ence be­tween life and death.

Help wasn't far

Three county fire sta­tions were with­in one to two miles of the Hooks’ home.

Res­cuers at two of the fire­houses were idle, wait­ing to be sent to an emer­gency, ac­cord­ing to county dis­patch re­cords.

But they didn't come

Be­cause the Hooks’ block is with­in L.A. city lim­its, med­ic­al emer­gen­cies are handled by LAFD, not the county agency.

LAFD dis­patch­ers have the abil­ity to send in help from the county, but rarely do so, ac­cord­ing to a Times ana­lys­is of the county's dis­patch data­base.

LAFD was farther away

LAFD dis­patched help from its two nearest fire sta­tions, which are nearly twice as far as the county fire­houses.

It would take more than 10 min­utes be­fore LAFD para­med­ics ar­rived at the scene.

Stephanie Hooks was rushed to Cent­inela Hos­pit­al in Ingle­wood, where she later died.