The intern, who recently began working with Councilwoman Diana Reyna, fainted just before noon, toward the end of the news conference, which had been held on a Williamsburg sidewalk under the shade of a tree.

Almost immediately, several people called 911, Ms. Quinn said, and the police officers assigned to her security detail radioed in as well. One of those officers, a detective and trained emergency medical worker, administered oxygen, she said, and put cold packs on her.

Fire officials said that based on details given by the initial caller, the 911 operator categorized the call as “Segment 5” — a medium priority call. (Calls given a 1 to 3 — cardiac arrest, gun shots — are responded to by paramedics.)

“She fainted, may have hit her head on the sidewalk,” the female caller told the operator, according to a copy of the transcript read by Mr. Gribbon.

“Is she awake now?” the operator asked. “She is,” the caller replied.

“You said that when she fell, she may have hit her head,” the operator asked again, seeking to determine the severity of the call.

“She may have, I couldn’t tell,” the caller said. (She did not hit her head, Ms. Quinn later said.)

Ms. Quinn said she kept telling the woman that an ambulance would arrive in a minute. “That’s all you can tell someone who’s lying on the ground in need of medical attention,” she said. “Because I can’t really say to her, they’re going to be here in a half an hour.”

But as the minutes stretched nearly that long, and Ms. Quinn failed in trying to reach the commissioner of the Fire Department, she got the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, on the phone.