The family of an infant who died after his babysitter's repeated attempts to reach 911 failed is suing T-Mobile, saying the carrier is partly to blame for his death.
Six-month-old Brandon Alex's babysitter tried for 40 minutes in March to call 911 after the baby rolled off a daybed onto the floor.
A problem with T-Mobile's technology at that time caused phones in the Dallas area to clog the city's emergency dispatch system with so-called "ghost calls" -- duplicate calls generated from legitimate 911 calls, city officials have said.
In the lawsuit, the boy's mother, Bridget Alex, claims that her son's babysitter could not connect with 911 after trying several times on March 11, and that T-Mobile's software failed to provide the dispatch service with the call's location.
The babysitter on that day did reach Alex, who raced home and rushed Brandon to the hospital. The baby was transferred to another hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The boy's cause of death has not been determined, the Collin County Medical Examiner's office said.
"He was only 6 months," Alex told CNN affiliate KTVT. "It wasn't his time."
Alex is seeking damages and compensation for "mental anguish, loss of consortium, grief, bereavement, loss of future financial contributions, loss of services, loss of advice, care and counsel, loss of society and companionship, medical, funeral, and burial expenses," among other things.
T-Mobile did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
Since Brandon's death, the carrier has made adjustments to its cell phone network to try to solve the 911 problem, and the Dallas emergency call center added operators to relieve the burden of "ghost calls," city officials said, calling the problem "outrageous."
"It is outrageous that T-Mobile still has not resolved the 'ghost call' issue that is putting Dallasites in danger by clogging our 911 system," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said in a statement shortly after Brandon died.
