2nd Supervisor Resigns

A second Pasco County (Fla.) dispatcher has resigned in the wake of a medical emergency that left a choking woman dead. Supervisor Maureen Thomas resigned last week after receiving a letter from Emergency Services Director Anthony Lopinto notifying her that he intended to fire her for “negligence, disregarding job duties, insubordination, immoral unlawful [acts], indecency, and incompetence.” Lopinto had written the same letter two weeks ago to lead supervisor David Cook, but Cook resigned before receiving the letter. The boyfriend of the victim dialed 911 when she choked on food, but the calltaker was untrained in EMD, and asked EMD-trained Cook to help the caller, but he was reluctant, according to logging tapes. According to Lopinto, Thomas also was EMD-trained but failed to assist the caller. The county has had to appoint a communications manager to field the huge number of press and citizen calls generated by the incident.