Officials point to human error in 6-year-old boy's death after ambulance sent to wrong address

It came down to the push of a button.

Authorities in New York blamed human error - not the city's Unified Call Taking system - for a 12-minute delay that may have contributed to the death of ailing 6-year-old, Ian Uro.

"It looks like an accident," said Paul Browne, the NYPD's chief spokesman.

Mariela Lazaro was too distraught to provide the correct cross streets when she called 911 on Thursday. A 911 dispatcher hit the wrong computer key, searching a Brooklyn database for the information even though Ian's mother was calling from Manhattan. The stroke of the wrong button mistakenly sent an ambulance crew to Avenue C in Brooklyn - instead of Avenue C in Stuyvesant Town.

The Brooklyn crew arrived at 9:10 a.m., six minutes after Lazaro first called 911 and said her son's nose was bleeding. When paramedics suspected there was a problem with the address, they called the mother and learned of the error.

A second crew was sent to the correct address in Manhattan. That ambulance arrived at 9:22 a.m., but the boy was already dead. It wasn't immediately clear if the boy could have been saved.

The call system, has been blamed in several 911 delays - including two fires that claimed six lives - during which firefighters were sent to the wrong addresses.

Ian had been sick, his maternal grandmother told the Daily News Friday. Relatives took him to Beth Israel Medical Center on Monday for treatment of a fever and other flu-like symptoms. On Wednesday, sources said, the boy was taken to a clinic.

"It's so sad," said his grandmother, who had was visiting from Argentina. She declined to give her name.

Autopsy results were inconclusive pending further tests, officials said.

This article is courtesy of Daily News.