Alternating from calm to frantic during a 51-minute conversation, Rohan described her injuries, explained where she was and told the voice on the other end she was afraid she was going to die after being buried in the debris of a pet supply store rocked by a gas explosion.
''I'm in a lot of pain now,'' she told operator Anthony Celano. ''It's actually good. I thought I died for a minute there,'' said Rohan.
Rohan, 34, of Dumont, was severely injured in the March 4 blast at Petco's store in Eatontown. She remained in critical condition Thursday at Jersey Shore Medical Center.
The explosion occurred after a construction worker accidentally cut into an unmarked natural gas pipeline, triggering a blast that blew windows out, collapsed the roof and trapped Rohan and four other workers.
In the 911 call, a recording of which was released in response to an Open Public Records Act request, Rohan joked about her condition, worried about who would take care of her dog and cried out to rescuers she could hear but not see, her emotions ebbing at times.
''Could you save me?'' she asked. ''I think I'm going to die.''
''We're not going to let that happen,'' Celano replied. ''Stay on the line with me, OK?''
Rohan was working in the store when the blast occurred, but it wasn't until 30 minutes after the explosion that her cell phone call came into Monmouth County's emergency dispatch center in Freehold.
Celano, 31, answered the call, and for nearly an hour, the two helped one another - he from his terminal in the dispatch center, she lying in the dark, on her side, legs up in the air, telling him what she was hearing, seeing and feeling.
''Where are you in the building?'' he said.
''I don't know. I'm underneath all this rubble. They can't hear me when I yell, but I can hear them saving somebody above me,'' Rohan replied.
That was fellow employee Nick Yacalis, 18, of Wall Township.
Later, she could be heard directing rescuers while she fielded Celano's questions.
As rescuers got closer to her, she interrupted the conversation with Celano to call out to rescuers.
''Did you save the guy above me?' she yelled to a rescuer from Fort Monmouth Fire Department.
''Come on, please help,'' she said, sobbing.
''Calm down, OK?'' Celano told her. '''They know where you're at, they just have to make sure they don't injure you when they move all this debris. Just concentrate on your breathing, OK.''
A moment later, she told Celano: ''Tell me a story or something, OK?''
''I'm no good at stories. I'll probably put you to sleep,'' he said. ''I bet you're gonna' have a good story when you get out.''
''I hope so,'' she said.
All the while, she kept talking about her legs.
''I can't feel my legs anymore. I want to feel them. Is it just the blood rushing out of them? I'm upside down,'' she told the rescuers. ''I'm not going to lose 'em, though? You guys wouldn't lie to me, right?''
''It could be just that you're not getting enough blood up into your legs,'' Celano told her. ''Is it like a pins and needles feeling?''
''It was awhile ago,'' she said.
As the rescuers approached her, she felt a gust of wind _ they had cleared a hole near her. Minutes later, they got to her.
''They're getting me out. They're getting the stuff off of me now,'' she told Celano.
Celano, a five-year veteran of 911 work, said he was impressed with Rohan's calm demeanor through the ordeal.
''I don't think I'd have been as calm,'' said Celano. ''I've had people with twisted ankles who thought the world was coming to an end, they were in so much pain.''
