Elderly Woman Dies After Nurse Refuses to Give Her CPR

[surjimmy]

If she did not have a DNR in place, then you have to assume she would want you to do everything possible to save her life. I don't care if she's 110 years old, as a nurse or even a bystander should have tried everything in their power to save this woman. PERIOD!

 

[Billybob]

The story is several days old at this point and the woman's family (if she has one) doesn't seem to be complaining.
No other residents or their familys seem to be complaining.

Why didn't the EMTs perform CPR when they got there? The woman was still breathing.
Maybe CPR wasn't indicated, or maybe OBAMA'S DEATH PANELS.

It's called "health care allocation"(google) and it's been talked about for awhile now and the idea of rationing health care is also being talked about.

Get Ready For Obamacare's Medical Rationing

ObamaCare supporters are now waging a high-profile public relations campaign to make medical rationing palatable to the general public.

[The latest front is the opinion pages of the New York Times, which recently published two Op-Eds openly advocating medical rationing. The first was by their economics columnist Eduardo Porter, “Rationing Health Care More Fairly” (8/21/2012)....

The second pro-rationing piece was by Obama administration advisor Steve Rattner, “Beyond ObamaCare” (9/16/2012). Rattner stated up front, “We need death panels.”...]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulhsieh/2012/10/03/get-ready-for-obamacares-medical-rationing/

 

[Billybob]

I'm just saying that she was apparently still alive when the EMTs arrived and they didn't administer CPR either.
We should have more information after so many days.

The whole story seems to rest upon the dispatcher's story rather than several medical personell on the scene.
Maybe we'll get more information later.

Can you provide a link that states the EMT's didn't do CPR? As for the dispatchers "story" it's recorded.
That being said I do agree we need more info.

 

[Billybob]

I have worked in elder care for 7 years, and it is company policy that I DO NOT perform CPR on any resident. We also do not lift a resident that has fallen and are to call Fire/EMSA for any emergency. Why you ask? Because some sue happy family thought that there loved one was hurt worse by an employee who helped them up from a fall(later found a broke hip). And my company has been in litigation for at least 3 years.

Three years in litigation? Some would contend there must be a case there or there's a real problem in our legal system.

 

[Billybob]

The woman's daughter (herself a nurse) has come forward to say that she's satisfied with the care her mother recieved.
Of course, there was an 18% chance that her mother might have survived to live another six weeks with agonizing rib injuries.
RIP, Ma'am. RIP and fare forward.

People die, folks. Get used to it.

Link to the daughter's statement and the 18% statement?

 

[Billybob]

More info, this was not a nursing home it was an independent living facility meaning the people there are in generally better health and ability. I knew an 85 yr.old woman who walked a mile a day and bowled once a week, assumptions that this woman was ready to die anyway are just that. She was in the dining room when she collapsed, what if she was just chocking on a piece of food?

Refusal to Give CPR to Elderly Woman Probed by Police

[Police launched an investigation today into the refusal by a staffer at a home for the elderly to perform CPR on an 87-year-old woman who collapsed on the floor and later died.

The staffer was identified today as a resident services director, not a nurse as previously reported. The woman repeatedly rebuffed pleas from the 911 dispatcher during a seven minute call on Feb. 26 to give the woman CPR or to ask someone else to do it.

Lorraine Bayless, 87, died later that day after being taken to a hospital by ambulance.

The incident occurred at Glenwood Gardens in Bakersfield, Calif., and today the police said they were looking into what occurred during the phone call with the dispatcher.

"The Bakersfield Police Department is currently investigating the incident to determine if there is any criminal wrongdoing in the matter," Bakersfield Police Department spokesperson Michaela Beard said.

Beard's statement came several hours after the executive director of Glenwood Gardens said the staffer did the right thing.

"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. That is the protocol we followed," Jeffrey Toomer said in a statement issued to ABC News.

Toomer offered condolences to the woman's family and said a review of the incident would be conducted.

Spokeswoman Andrea Turner said Glenwood Gardens is an independent living facility.

"Independent Living communities do not provide medical services, as they are not licensed to do so. In an emergency, staff will call 911 and then wait with the person in need of assistance. Glenwood Gardens is an independent living facility which, by law, is not licensed to provide medical care to any of its residents," Turner said in a statement.

In a tape of the 911 call dispatcher Tracey Halvorson pleaded with the unidentified woman, "Is there anybody there that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?"

"Not at this time," the woman replied.

Halvorson is part of "a special breed," said Bakersfield Fire Department Battalion Chief Anthony Galagaza. Dealing with a caller who won't follow directions happens routinely, he said.

"They go through this a number of times a month," he told ABCNews.com. "They give instruction over the phone (and) at times it's declined, other times it's administered."

Halvorson is declining interview requests, he said.

Dispatchers are trained to persuade callers to administer first aid to a person in distress before a first responder arrives, he said.

"She did exactly what she was supposed to do," Galagaza said.

Glenwood's protocol has outraged some who claim that when someone picks up the phone to call 911 to help a person in trouble, the caller has an obligation to do what the dispatcher says.

"It's inexcusable," Arthur Caplan, head of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City told ABCNews.com. "You call 911, you trigger a process to do a resuscitation."

The staffer had nothing to lose legally, he said. All states have laws protecting good Samaritans, he said.

"There's never been a successful lawsuit against someone who tried to help using CPR," he said. "Every state, if you make a good, safe attempt to help, will indemnify lawsuits."

"Society is making it easier for you to intervene," he said. In Vermont there's a $100 fine for not helping a person in distress, he said.

Caplan said, however, that even if the staffer did perform CPR, the chances of keeping Bayless alive were slim. Even when CPR is administered immediately the chance of recovery is worse than 50-50, Caplan said.

"The odds are pretty long," he said.

But that doesn't change the ethics of why people should help each other, he said.

ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams said a question remains about the liability of Glenwood Gardens. Medical facilities are required to perform CPR on a person in distress. It's unclear whether Glenwood Gardens qualifies as a medical facility or is "essentially an apartment complex for the elderly," he said today on Good Morning America.

Legal issues aside, there's an unbelievable quality to the incident, he said. The woman acts "nonchalant" in contrast to the dispatcher who begs her to grab a stranger who might try to save the woman's life.

"Bravo to the 911 operator, the way she's going at it, trying to get some action here," Abrams said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/refusal-give-cpr-elderly-woman-probed-police/story?id=18648941

 

[AKguy1985]

The lady was 87 years old! Let her go in peace.

I'm gonna agree too. She lived a very llong life.

 

[Billybob]

Policies In Tulsa Examined After CA Woman Is Refused CPR By Nursing Staff

[The CEO of Oklahoma Methodist Manor said they have both independent and assisted living on the same campus, and if anyone needs emergency care, they'll get it, unless they have specified otherwise.

The woman who died in California did not have a Do Not Resuscitate order.

Emeritus Senior Living released this statement Monday:

"Our policy is that any individual certified in CPR can administer it, as long as they have called 911 or they have gotten someone else to do so.

"It is our policy to do the right thing in all circumstances and we will stand behind any employee who does so."

We contacted 10 different retirement communities here in Tulsa, and of those that returned our call, only one said they have a policy similar to the one at that California facility...]

http://www.newson6.com/story/21476283/ca-elderly-womans-death-refused-cpr