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Man Found Dead in Office 10 Hours After 911 Phone Glitch Confuses Rescuers
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Jamie Lacey, a spokeswoman for MedImmune, confirmed that an employee had died but declined to discuss details.
Baur said Billah worked in a private office.
"He wasn't in a cubicle in a public area," she said. "His job required travel and, because he was a new employee, he had not developed close friendships with other employees who might have casually visited."
Lt. Eric Burnett, a police spokesman, said emergency calls made from some corporate phone systems are sometimes traced to the wrong address because phone lines in multiple buildings are traced to a single location.
That is a problem that 911 dispatchers have struggled with for several years, said Bill Cade, director of 911 services and communications center operations at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International.
He said large phone systems use technology that can make it hard for emergency personnel to trace the exact location of a call in a business campus or resort.
"Readers who work for big businesses might want to ask themselves, 'What's the impact on me if I were to have an emergency in one of these locations?' " Cade said. "They're real issues, and they're everyday issues. We don't know how many times it happens. But if it happens to you, it's one time too many."
He said several companies have been reluctant to invest in software that allows emergency responders to trace phone calls in large corporate settings to specific locations. Such programs cost about $10,000, he said.
His organization has given awards in recent years to universities and other large institutions that invest in software and technology that allows dispatchers to easily trace emergency calls.
Billah's relatives could not be reached. Billah was an immigrant from Bangladesh who obtained a PhD in agricultural economics from Cornell University in 2002.
"He was a good student," said William H. Lesser, chairman of the university's Department of Applied Economics and Management. "I know he kept in touch with the department on occasion."
Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
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