Orlando airport emergency call box fails during teen's medical scare, family says

Emergency call box at MCO fails during medical scare, family says

A family says an emergency call box at Orlando International Airport failed when their 13-year-old son suffered a medical episode, leaving them waiting nearly 30 minutes before help arrived.

ORLANDO, Fla. - A teen suffering a medical emergency at the Orlando International Airport (MCO) had to wait a half hour for help because of a broken call box, the boy's family says. 

Now, the family says they want the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority to do better inspections and make sure no one else is put at risk.

What happened to Chris Byers?

What we know:

Chris Byers is 13 years old that has a heart condition called Hypo Plastic Right Heart Syndrome. He’s had three open-heart surgeries.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP

Chris was walking through MCO when he started to feel chest pains. The teen's dad – also named Chris Byers – felt thankful when he saw there was a "Code Blue" emergency communication device right by them. However, that feeling was short-lived when the machine turned out to be broken. 

"The red light flashed, but no one came on the speaker," the father said. "So, then I was getting worried. It wasn't working."

Byers found a worker, who called her manager, who called for help. However, the father says it was a half hour between when his son started having a medical emergency and when first responders arrived.

"If this was, you know, a problem that was worse than it was, you know, my son would be dead," he said. "I mean, let's just be honest, they wouldn't have come in time."

What is Code Blue? What does it do?

Dig deeper:

MCO officials told FOX 35 News that it does have 336 Code Blue devices, and confirmed the one the family used was broken. Code Blue says its devices send out automatic alerts if they’re malfunctioning, but the airport says this one’s software was fine, and there was physical damage to the call button that stopped it from working.

MCO told FOX 35's Reporter Marie Edinger that they’ll review how frequently their Code Blue devices are inspected.

SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35'S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS

"Software monitoring takes place daily, and a thorough check of all Code Blue devices was recently conducted," they said. "Damaged units have been repaired or replaced — even if they were still operational — to ensure reliability."

MCO is the only airport in the world to receive an emergency management accreditation.