Helpline Priest’s Snoozing Dissuaded Suicidal Caller

A suicidal man was left feeling so angry that he lost the will to kill himself after the priest at the suicide helpline that he called fell asleep.

When the 44-year-old man called emergency services at 2am on Friday reporting to be feeling “psychologically unstable”, he call was forwarded to the Church of Sweden pastor who was working at the time.

According to the man, things became a little strange about five minutes into the call. He stated that it was as if he was talking to himself.

The caller told the Barometern

I thought maybe he was taking notes, so I asked: ‘Are you taking notes?’ I could hear his heavy breathing before he woke up.

The man reported hanging up the phone after the pastor woke up and fell asleep again. It was then that the caller reported that his suicidal thoughts had been replaced with anger for the sleepy pastor.

He vented his frustration to the Kalmar newspaper:

It’s not acceptable for a priest to fall asleep in the middle of a call; this should not happen when you call up in search of help. I felt bad and wanted to kill myself, but I pulled myself together and made the call. I am very disappointed.

Monica Eckerdal Kjellstroem, head of Church of Sweden duty pastors explained to The Local.se

This sort of thing should really not occur, but it does sometimes happen that people call and report that the pastors have fallen asleep.

In future, she said, sleeping pastors will be fired.

[Telegraph