Rhode Island – Pawtucket Police Dispatcher Cancel’s ALS Unit and Woman Dies
Many states take the duties and responsibilities of dispatchers seriously. In early February of 2020 a Rhode Island E911 call was made for a rescue. The caller was a male, he was frantic and speaking loudly and crying. He gave his address and the nature of his call. His girlfriend was passed out and not responding. Please help! Please Hurry! He cried into the phone. The Call Taker (CT) acknowledged that he understood but moaned about the 911 caller yelling and never assured him that help was on the way. Then another voice came on the line, “Fire Alarm”. It was the Pawtucket Police Department’s Communication’s Dispatcher on Duty, Michael Fidalgo. A new civilian employee of the department who had the power of the Chief of police as a radio dispatcher. What he told patrolmen and women to do they had to follow the dispatcher’s orders as if it were the chief herself according to the Pawtucket Police Department’s policies and rules.
From the moment Fidalgo joined the conversation he was rude, uncaring and unwilling to help a 911 caller which is against department policies. While a woman lie unconscious Fidalgo busied himself with doing background checks on the 911 caller. Wasting time he began antagonizing the man on the other end who was frustrated, crying and desperately needed medical assistance. Playing dumb and acting like he didn’t understand the man.
So the 911 caller clears his throat and tells the dispatcher that his girl is unconscious and he don’t know what is wrong but she’s not responding so you get somebody out here. Although, a decent human being would have said help was on the way, Fidalgo said, “So your girlfriend’s unconscious what’s going on talk to me … ” which is against policy also, he is not allowed to give advice to 911 callers. But Fidalgo wasn’t going to let a 911 caller tell him what to do, did he know who he was talking to, Michael Fidalgo radio dispatcher with the power of the chief.
At that point Fidalgo was focued on teaching the 911 caller who was in charge. He again plays his game and tells the CT who is still on the line just listening in that he doesn’t understand the 911 caller. The CT sounding intimidated says he thinks the 911 caller said he needs a rescue. This angers the 911 caller who is still on the line listening to the dispatcher and 911 call taker have a conversation. Then, Fidalgo says he knows the police and he’s going to give the call over to the police … what the f… and that is when he canceled the ALS Unit that was in route. But that wasn’t enough, Fidalgo was pissed, he gave the call to the police who also did background checks with the CT on the line.
Five minutes had past when the police were dispatched and the ALS Unit with advanced life support and paramedics were dispatched and less than a minute later while en route Michael Fidalgo canceled them. Reporting the 911 call for a non responsive female as an unknown medical. Dispatcher Michael Fidalgo knew that was a situation that meant danger, send in the police first to clear the scene. We don’t know if someone needs medical assistance but they may. So Michael Fidalgo dispatched three other units with “manpower” because he was delaying medical assistance and making sure that man’s girlfriend didn’t get any help. How dare he demand that Michael Fidalgo send someone out there. Not only did Michael Fidalgo careless about the woman who lie in dire need of medical care he didn’t care about the department resources he tied up unnecessarily, he didn’t care about anything but teaching the 911 caller a lesson. Michael Fidalgo didn’t care if his girlfriend died or not he was going to prove his point and wield the power entrusted to him.
Because of One Disturbed Individual a Life was Lost
Kristine Ohler may very well be alive today if Michael Fidalgo did not maliciously cancel Advanced Life Support. Any person who does “telephone” work for a living knows that it takes kindness, patience and respect to interact with callers or the pubic. Dispatchers have a high standard to meet and their character and attitude cannot be like Michael Fidalgo’s who acted with a wanton disregard for life. This was an overdose situation and many people fear dialing 911 because of the police responding and doing exactly what they did in Mr. Colebut’s case; exploit the 911 call and arrest good-faith callers who report possible overdoses.
Dispatcher Was Angry at 911 Caller and Let a Woman Die
Rhode Island has since changed how medical emergency calls are handled, but that does not bring a dead woman back to life. It is not right for the state to know that advanced life support was canceled and not investigate the dispatcher, but persecute the 911 caller who begged for and demanded help for his girlfriend. The fact that the dispatcher intentionally stopped the ALS Unit and sent out lesser equipped units as “manpower” that Fidalgo also held back by unnecessarily telling the EMTs to STAGE for police. What type of human being would do such a thing? The inability to feel empathy for another human life is a characteristic of someone who should not be in any position that deals with the public.
Rhode Island Should Follow Other State Examples
Dispatchers who deny assistance, delay response, hang up on callers, send the units to the wrong address and other things of this nature are investigated and held accountable for their mistakes or wrong doings. Michael Fidalgo’s actions were a serious contributing factor to Kristine Ohler’s condition worsening and becoming fatal. He set everything in motion and the police filled in the blanks and rather than addressing the misconduct an all out effort to bury the truth and frame an innocent man began.
It is one thing for the dispatcher to cancel advanced life support that was en route and a whole different one when the State’s Assistant Attorney General’s know the facts and have pressed forward with a fierceness in pursuit of Mr. Colebut’s life. One can only wonder why, it is quite obvious that how dispatchers handle calls is a very serious public issue and not one to be played with.
Pawtucket Dispatcher Michael Fidalgo Back to Food Service
The Pawtucket Police Communications dispatcher Michael Fidalgo whose reckless disregard for human life was a direct nexus to Kristine Ohler’s condition worsening and becoming fatal. Michael Fidalgo is no longer with the Pawtucket Police Department he is working in East Providence. That does not change the facts that then dispatcher Michael Fidalgo canceled Advanced Life Support that was in route for an unconscious woman and his actions resulted in Kristine Ohler’s ultimate death while in the care, custody and control of the responding 3rd platoon patrolmen/women that were dispatched instead for a RI E 911 Medical Emergency call that Michael Fidalgo answered on February 17, 2020.
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911 dispatcher charged with involuntary manslaughter after allegedly refusing to send an ambulance to help a woman
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Family sues Ottawa County dispatchers over handling of 911 call before murder
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Arkansas judge orders ex-dispatcher to pay $17.6M; she is liable for damages in suffering, death of boy
A Pulaski County judge found a former Little Rock emergency call taker liable for $17.6 million related to the suffering and death of Le Yang, who in 2013 nearly drowned in an SUV submerged in a pond while he and his mom waited nearly an hour for rescue.
When 69-year-old Stephen Greene had a heart attack last March, the staff at the rehabilitation center where he had been recovering from other health issues picked up the phone to call an ambulance.
When 69-year-old Stephen Greene had a heart attack last March, the staff at the rehabilitation center where he had been recovering from other health issues picked up the phone to call an ambulance. They called 911 13 times before they got an answer, according to a lawsuit filed this week. When they finally did get through, an ambulance was sent for Greene and he was transported to the hospital. But he died the next day. They called 911 13 times before they got an answer, according to a lawsuit filed this week. When they finally did get through, an ambulance was sent for Greene and he was transported to the hospital. But he died the next day.
Choking Death Suit Against Fla. 911 Dispatch Settled
McGhee’s family sued Emergency Services for negligence, saying that in March 2007, 911 dispatchers were unable to give McGhee’s boyfriend the proper instructions on how to administer emergency treatment required to dislodge a piece of steak that McGhee was choking on. McGhee, 37, choked to death in her Land O’ Lakes home. An agreement in principal was reached in mid-December regarding her choking death and the manner in which her boyfriend’s 911 call for help was handled, according to Tom Carey, a Clearwater attorney who represented McGhee’s children. The settlement is for $75,000, according to Anthony Salzano, Pasco County’s senior assistant county attorney. Themoney will go to McGhee’s one adult daughter, Crissy Cresong, and three juvenile children, David, Kelly, and Steven Cresong.