A man died after suffering an aortic aneurysm at a Council Bluffs grocery store. While rescuers were called immediately, a 911 dispatcher sent them to the wrong location.

The mistake delayed paramedics by six minutes

The call came in to the Pottawattamie County Emergency Operations Center at 10:39 a.m., January 26.

Caller: “It's the no frills on valley view drive.”
Dispatcher: "OK, what's going on?"
Caller: "Uh, I have a guy that passed out."

That man was 32 year-old Nate Juelsgaard, of Treynor. The beverage distributor and father of three collapsed without warning. It would later be determined he had suffered an aortic aneurysm.

Dr. Tom Howard, a vascular surgeon with Nebraska Medical Center said, "It's an immediately life-threatening circumstance when those begin to bleed."

Rescue crews arrived at the No Frills store at 18th and Broadway in less than five minutes. A minute later, the 911 dispatcher realized she had made a terrible mistake.

Dispatcher: "What no frills are you at?"
Caller: "On Valley View Drive."

She had entered the wrong location. A break in protocol occurred, said Emergency Operations Center Director Andrea Schaffer. She said dispatchers are supposed to verify addresses at the beginning of calls, and that was not done. “Disciplinary action was taken,” she said.

The nearest fire station to the correct address was just down the street. Once crews there received the call, they were on-scene within two minutes. However, Juelsgaard could not be resuscitated.

"Of course it's upsetting to me to think they could have been there in two minutes,” said his mother, Becky Hansen. “But ultimately, we feel that Nate's condition is such that it really didn't make a difference."

Though Dr. Howard did not see the patient, he agrees with Hansen. He said a dissecting aneurysm is the likely culprit in a case like this, where the victim is young and the onset is sudden. "His chances of survival even if the ambulance had gotten there sooner were probably extremely poor."

Juelsgaard's mother just hopes his story will prevent this kind of mistake, from impacting someone else. "Knowing Nate,” she said, “if anybody could be saved because of a situation they learned from his passing, he would want that to happen."

A fundraiser is being held next Friday night, March 5, to benefit the Juelsgaard children, ages two, seven and nine. It’s to help fund their college education. The event will be held at Council Bluffs’ Whiskey Roadhouse.