Dispatch Supervisor in Florida Fatality Case Had Ups, Downs

NEW PORT RICHEY - Pasco County dispatch supervisor David Cook usually showed up for work an hour early. In his last evaluation, he was commended for bringing about positive change.

A review of his performance evaluations over the past 18 years, however, showed ups and downs in Cook's ability to deal with the public and to accept criticism from his supervisors. He was promoted, demoted and promoted again. Last month, he was written up for falling asleep on the job.

Cook opted to take an early retirement March 25, a day after he and another communications officer refused to offer life-saving advice to a caller before his girlfriend, Nancy McGhee, choked to death. The other officer, Maureen Thomas, is slated to have a hearing today about her role in the incident.

It is impossible to know whether McGhee, 37, would have survived had Cook or Thomas, both trained Emergency Medical Dispatchers, taken the call the first or second time an untrained officer asked for help. Nor can anyone know whether paramedics could have saved her had they arrived earlier at the home in the Cypress Bayou community off Tower Road.

Dan Johnson, the assistant county administrator for public services, said the people involved, not the EMD system, failed. He can't explain Cook's and Thomas' actions but said he is wondering whether their supervisors should have anticipated potential problems.

"We are going to be looking at are there some additional steps we should be doing," Johnson said Thursday. "Are there things we are missing?"

Chris Cooper called 911 after he found his girlfriend, McGhee, in their kitchen, gasping and motioning toward her neck. She was choking on a piece of steak. He asked her if she was OK, and she fell to the floor.

Pasco emergency dispatcher Jennie Montanino took Cooper's call at 9:15 p.m. Because she was untrained to instruct Cooper in the Heimlich maneuver, Montanino asked a supervisor to help. Several dispatchers said they heard Cook and Thomas refuse.

Cook said more than once he did not want to get on the phone with "a hysterical caller" before agreeing six minutes into the call. He instructed Cooper to perform the Heimlich maneuver without success. When paramedics arrived five minutes later, McGhee was dead.

When Cook heard of McGhee's death, several on the shift said, he joked that she had "bitten off more than she could chew."

McGhee's mother, Martha Callahan of Lake Placid, said she is outraged that dispatchers not only refused to help her daughter's boyfriend but later joked about her death.

"I think that's pretty poor when they get people on there and make jokes," Callahan said. "He took her life, you might as well say."

Callahan spoke with her daughter, who had lived with Cooper for three years, a few days before she died. McGhee, a deli worker at a Publix supermarket, had planned to meet with her children and try to regain custody. Instead, the family buried McGhee on March 30 in a Lake Placid cemetery.

Callahan said she and her son have contacted a lawyer to find out if they have legal recourse.

"These children need that money," she said. "I want to get ahold of that money and put it away for my grandkids ? She has four of the sweetest little children you'd ever want to meet."

Training Not Required

EMD training is not required by law, but it is considered an enhancement because life-saving procedures can be performed before paramedics arrive. Johnson said he is confident in the system, he said, noting that EMDs handled two successful calls Wednesday.

Pasco's 29 dispatchers include 18 trained in EMD. The others are to complete a training course this month.

Although the Heimlich maneuver may seem a simple procedure any emergency worker could explain, EMDs must follow through with instructions for other needed procedures, such as CPR.

"A lot of people are thinking, this is a basic Heimlich maneuver, but things change when a person is unconscious," Johnson said. "It goes beyond basic first aid. Once you take on basic life-saving procedures, you do not stop."

Hillsborough County dispatchers who handle medical calls all have EMD certification. New dispatchers are put through a six-month training program before they answer emergency calls.

There are no immediate plans to change procedures, but Johnson is wondering if supervisors should have anticipated problems with Cook or Thomas.

Cook was hired in 1989 as a communications officer. He was promoted to supervisor in 1996 but soon after he took a voluntary demotion, saying in a letter, "At the time I accepted this position, I felt I would be an asset, but I know now that is not possible."

He was promoted again to lead communications officer in 2002 and a year later named communications supervisor. His salary was about $42,000.

On March 5, Cook signed a letter acknowledging that he had fallen asleep on the job twice during one shift.

His previous reviews noted issues with management skills. Several evaluations said Cook's taped communications were sometimes inappropriate. In 1993, a supervisor said Cook "sometimes can be short with public and field."

Dispatcher To Have Hearing

Thomas has been on medical leave, but she met with county Personnel Director Barbara De Simone on Thursday to discuss her possible punishment. A hearing was scheduled for today.

Until the incident last month, Thomas had a near-exemplary record. She was hired in 1993 as an operator/officer and became a lead dispatcher in 2002. Her salary is $34,739.

Her latest evaluation said Thomas worked well with her co-workers and that she was a competent trainer. A previous evaluation said she is a team player who "steps up when she is needed most." Thomas received a certificate of recognition in 2004 for her handling of a serious train accident.

The investigation into the handling of the March 24 call painted a different picture.

A fellow dispatcher said Thomas has delayed when asked for EMD assistance in the past, although she has never refused. Thomas told her supervisors she was not asked to help with the McGhee call.

"I do not remember being asked to do EMD or saying that I would not get on the phone," she wrote. "I was already on the phone, so perhaps the party reporting this statement misunderstood me when I stated that I was on the phone."

Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or

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