Memo: Fulton 911 operator’s calls were ‘total chaos’

Four years before a Fulton 911 operator delayed help to a Johns Creek woman who later died, Gina Conteh’s supervisors were threatening to pull her off of dispatching Rural Metro ambulances.

A March, 5, 2004, memo in the personnel file of Conteh shows supervisor Latisha Lester felt Conteh “was not grasping the radio” after nearly eight years on the job.

Lester went on to say Conteh “appears to be having a retention problem as well as multi-tasking issues … especially when calls are coming back to back.” She reported that Conteh “loses focus and that leaves her radio in total chaos.”

Lester said Conteh should get 40 hours of remedial training or “be taken off Rural Metro radio immediately.”

Conteh was still dispatching Rural Metro ambulances to unincorporated Fulton on Aug. 2 when Darlene Dukes called in from Johns Creek gasping for breath from a blood clot in her lung.

Conteh, 43, appeared to handle multiple calls while she was misdirecting help that might have saved Dukes life. The veteran operator sent emergency crews to southwest Atlanta instead of Johns Creek in north Fulton.

She didn’t realize the error for 25 minutes before sending police and fire units from Johns Creek to Dukes’ apartment in north Fulton. Even then, Conteh delayed another 20 minutes before dispatching an ambulance that didn’t arrive until an hour after the original call.

Dukes, a mother of two, was proclaimed dead an hour later.

Since then, Fulton officials have fired Conteh and reassigned longtime 911 Director Alfred “Rocky” Moore. They have also pledged to rush through both an internal and external audit of the 911 center to assure Fulton’s nearly 1 million residents that help will come when you dial 911.

Conteh worked for Fulton nearly 12 years before she was fired on Aug. 6. She amassed a 2,100-page personnel record during that time that included numerous mistakes in routing emergency crews, fights with co-workers, chronic tardiness and repeated problems staying awake to handle emergency calls.

Reached at home Thursday, Conteh referred questions to her attorney.

— Staff writer Ken Sugiura contributed to this report.