Old lady dies in nursing home because Nurse refuses CPR, cites company policy.

[Cannon88]

does 'civilan' cpr not simply consist of repetitive compressions now?

Yep.

[sc281]

Are you sure? Thats what the news says, how the hell do they know? Its a HIPAA violation if the nursing home said she didnt. Its hearsay.

Are you sure? Wouldn't the call go a bit differently?

Dispatcher- We need to do CPR

Nurse - She's DNR

Dispatcher- Damn. Understood.


Not

Disptach: We need CPR

Nurse: Can't. Against company policy.

Disptach: wtf? Get someone else to do it.

Nurse: Can't. They aren't trained to do it.

Disptach: Get SOMEBODY!!

Nurse (To colleague): This lady is really stressing me out telling me to help the lady who is all dying n shit.

[Craizie]

I havent read your whole post, but she did not have a dnr. It's in the story.

Secondly, The reasons the Nurse gave for not doing it was not "There is blood around and a risk on infection"

"Most people dont even understand you dont shock asystole like in the movies"

But a Nurse would though. She was a trained nurse, and I would assume she could do defib, if your scenario was what played out. That still goes back to the fact that she had the expertise to make a difference, and she CHOSE not to even try. You may consider that a "dumbass assumption", but that is where it is based on the tape.

Then we would be reading a story about how a woman got fired for saving a life.

[lowthreeohz]

does 'civilan' cpr not simply consist of repetitive compressions now?

[8mpg]

I havent read your whole post, but she didn not have a dnr. It's in the story.

Are you sure? Thats what the news says, how the hell do they know? Its a HIPAA violation if the nursing home said she didnt. Its hearsay.

[sc281]

First of all..teh call was originally for shortness of breath/difficulty breathing. CPR is NOT the answer to that. You need EMS to give oxygen/breathing treatments, etc.

2nd of all, what if the lady was a DNR? No one knows the exact circumstances. If there was blood all over the place and I didnt have gloves, I wouldnt touch her. My safety before her safety.

3rd, the odds of her living from bystander CPR out of hospital is something like 1%. Most people dont do CPR for shit to begin with. If the lady had a pulse, CPR isnt going to help necessarily. If she was in vtach/vfib, she needs to be defibrilated.

There are just too many scenarios for anyone to make some dumbass assumptions. Most people dont even understand you dont shock asystole like in the movies.

I havent read your whole post, but she did not have a dnr. It's in the story.

Secondly, The reasons the Nurse gave for not doing it was not "There is blood around and a risk on infection"

"Most people dont even understand you dont shock asystole like in the movies"

But a Nurse would though. She was a trained nurse, and I would assume she could do defib, if your scenario was what played out. That still goes back to the fact that she had the expertise to make a difference, and she CHOSE not to even try. You may consider that a "dumbass assumption", but that is where it is based on the tape.

[sc281]

Wonder how much the Mom was worth, with the daguhter being okay with the staff letting her mom die and all...

[8mpg]

First of all..teh call was originally for shortness of breath/difficulty breathing. CPR is NOT the answer to that. You need EMS to give oxygen/breathing treatments, etc.

2nd of all, what if the lady was a DNR? No one knows the exact circumstances. If there was blood all over the place and I didnt have gloves, I wouldnt touch her. My safety before her safety.

3rd, the odds of her living from bystander CPR out of hospital is something like 1%. Most people dont do CPR for shit to begin with. If the lady had a pulse, CPR isnt going to help necessarily. If she was in vtach/vfib, she needs to be defibrilated.

There are just too many scenarios for anyone to make some dumbass assumptions. Most people dont even understand you dont shock asystole like in the movies. Just read the last bit...the daughter was ok with the outcome. People living there should be aware of what the facility will and will not do for them.

[lowthreeohz]

Policy be damned, i wouldn't let someone die in front of me. That said, this happened in Cali.. can we really act surprised?

[Forever_frost]

That is sickening. You feel "stressed" when someone is dying and you're watching them? Fuck you.

[sc281]

You can blame our sue happy country for that. Had she given cpr and hurt the old lady in the process instant lawsuit.

I blame the person. It's a person's life. She let her die. Whatever her justifications, she had the expertise to save her life and she chose not to. Her calousness about it is even more damning, talking about how she was "stressed" because the 911 operator was yelling at her.

I can't wrap my head around this.


"Just following orders" didn't save the german at the neuremberg trials from hanging. Shoulda used the company policy excuse. Apparently you get off scott free that way.

[2011GT]

You can blame our sue happy country for that. Had she given cpr and hurt the old lady in the process instant lawsuit.

[sc281]

Disgusting.

When I read the article a few years back about the Firefighters in Britain letting a person on a few feet of water drown because it was against the department policy in some way to help him, i was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe that a bureaucracy was that entrenched that it could paralyze a person from savings a life. i felt sorry for Britains.

Now, it's crossed the pond.


U.S ‘Is there anybody that’s willing to help this lady and not let her die?’: 911 tape reveals dispatcher's pleas on behalf of victim who needs CPR

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/911-tape-reveals-dispatcher-cpr-pleas-nurse-article-1.1278682

A dispatcher’s desperate pleas for a nurse to perform CPR and try to save the life of an 87-year-old woman at a California retirement home was met with stubborn resistance, a shocking 911 tape reveals.

“It’s a human being,” the dispatcher says in the dramatic call. “Is there anybody that’s willing to help this lady and not let her die?”

“Not at this time,” the nurse calmly replies.

The victim was later declared dead at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield — forcing the nursing home, Glenwood Gardens, to defend its nurse’s actions after the life-and-death situation last Tuesday.

The Bakersfield Fire Department identified the dispatcher as Tracey Halvorsen, who took the call about a woman who had collapsed at the retirement facility’s dining room and was barely breathing.

“We need to get CPR started,” Halvorsen says in the 7-minute call, which was made public Sunday.

“Yeah, we can’t do CPR,” says the nurse, identified as Colleen, referring to a company policy that requires employees to wait for emergency responders to arrive before attempting the procedure.


The Glenwood Garden retirement facility in Bakersfield, Calif., where a resident later died after an employee refused to attempt CPR. Halvorsen tells the nurse that EMS would assume liability for the call.

“Anybody there can do CPR,” the dispatcher continues. “Give them the phone, please. I understand if your facility is not willing to do that. Give the phone to that passerby, that stranger ... this woman is not breathing enough. She's going to die if we don’t get this started. Do you understand?”

“ I understand. I am a nurse,” Colleen says. “But I cannot have our other senior citizens who don’t know CPR do it.”

“I will instruct them. Is there anyone there who will (do it),” Halvorsen says, later adding, “I don’t understand why you’re not willing to help this patient."The nurse tells a colleague that she feels “stressed” over the situation and that the dispatcher is “yelling” at her to have one of the other nursing home residents perform CPR.

Halvorsen grows desperate, and asks if there’s a gardener or a stranger on the street who might be willing to step in.

Eventually, the ambulance arrives to transport the victim, identified as Lorraine Bayless, to the hospital.

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Susana Bates for News
A woman at a California nursing facility had trouble breathing and required CPR but a nurse refused, citing company policy to the dispatcher. The woman resided at Glenwood Gardens’ independent living home, where employees aren’t supposed to attempt CPR on residents, unlike other sections of the facility.

Bayless, however, did not have a do-not-resuscitate order, according to NBC affiliate KGET-TV.

Still, the woman’s daughter told the station that she was satisfied with how the facility handled the situation.

Glenwood Gardens released a statement explaining its hard-line position.

“In the event of a health emergency at this independent living community our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives,” Jeffrey Toomer, the facility’s executive director, said in a statement. “That is the protocol we followed.”

Toomer told KGET-TV that residents are informed of its policy when they move in.

The facility does plan to perform a “thorough internal review” of the incident, he added.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...#ixzz2Mb2VlJth