Friday, April 25, 2008

Florida county sued over 911 delay death

Pasco County, Florida's 911 system is the subject of a promised lawsuit from the family of a woman who choked to death.

Nancy McGhee died in March, 2007 when a piece of steak became lodged in her throat. Her boyfriend frantically called 911, and lawyers for McGhee's family said it took too long for a specially trained operator to take over the call. Tom Carey, the family's attorney says McGhee's death illustrates a fundamental flaw in Pasco County's 911 system.

"For example, in Pinellas County, if a medical call comes in through the 911 system, it's routed immediately to a medical professional such as an EMT or paramedic. We believe that would have saved (McGhee's) life if that was the system in Pasco County," Carey said.

After the incident Pasco County's fire chief said staff members would be better trained to deal with similar situations. (info & photo from myfoxtampabay)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Its sad someone had to die for the Pacso County Fire Chief to come to the decision to better train the 911 dispachers. They should also go over their repremand policy as COOK should not have been placed on PAID leave! Wake up people!