Posted on 03/03/2013 2:19:31 PM PST by Nachum
A 911 dispatcher pleaded with a nurse at a Bakersfield, Calif., senior living facility to save the life of an elderly woman by giving her CPR, but the nurse said policy did not allow her to, according to a newly released audiotape of the call.
"Is there anybody there that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?" the dispatcher asked in a recording of the 911 call released by the Bakersfield Fire Department.
"Not at this time," the nurse said.
The incident unfolded on Tuesday when 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless collapsed at Glenwood Gardens, a senior living facility in Bakersfield.
In the seven-minute, 16-second recording, the nurse told the dispatcher it was against the facility's policy for employees to perform CPR on residents.
With every passing second, Bayless' chances of survival were diminishing. The dispatcher's tone turned desperate.
"Anybody there can do CPR. Give them the phone please. I understand if your facility is not willing to do that. Give the phone to that passerby," the dispatcher said. "This woman is not breathing enough. She is going to die if we don't get this started."
(Excerpt) Read more at gma.yahoo.com ...
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Evidently the dispatcher didn’t get the memo.
even the old folks homes are following ObamaCare.
I suspect a mad rush of younger people trying to fill that spot with their parents.
Sorry, but the Ministry of Health does not permit level S-4 drones to perform resuscitation on the useless elderly.
Or his sequester team.
The list of people I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire grows longer daily.
Lawyers
I was in "front line" health care for 20 years but have been out now for 20.Back then DNR orders were taken very seriously when issuing them.All the "t's" had to be crossed and all the "i's" dotted.Mental competency had to be determined in many cases.Unless things are much different than I picture them (including such things as California's laws and nurse licensing standards/regulation) somebody's gonna have some 'splainin to do.For an entire health care facility to have such a policy is mind boggling to me but hey...California...the land of fruits and nuts and flakes.
And those who bend to them.
From the American HEART Association: “Only an estimated 8% of victims who suffer a SCA outside of a hospital setting survive.”
I am right in the line of fire for obamacare. I upsets me daily. I will be one of the first hit.
I used to do insurance inspections at "assisted living facilities" in California a few years ago and it is standard procedure to call 911 in the event of a medical emergency. Even though the staff are usually certified nurses assistants who have CPR training some facilities do not allow them to perform any procedures on their clients.
Some facilities have been sued for intervening in spite of the Good Samaritan law. So many do not take a chance.
“the nurse said policy did not allow her to”
Must be a union shop
It is a major nursing home chain. I wonder if that is corporate policy or just this site? Are they Obama donors?
As I understand it, the family of the elderly woman is not contesting the actions of the nurse/facility.
I work at a nursing home and as soon as a resident arrives, either short-term or long-term, they or their power of attorney/family member must sign a form stating they will be “do not resuscitate” or “full code”. If they are DNR, the nurses and/or staff is not allowed to try to save them. If they are full code, they will try to save them. It has been that way for a long time and I don’t think it has anything to do with Obamacare. With Obamacare, we will all be DNR.
A DNR is a possibility I hadn’t considered and is a valid point.
That being said, if this lady did not have one I’m not sure I could have stood down and not attempted to help if I had that capability. Policy or not. I here there is a “Good Samaratin” law.
A sign of our troubled times, I guess.
Oath: "The health and life of my patient will be my first consideration"
Sorry, I’m sure that patient signed the DNR before they go into an end life facility. You can’t go against their final wishes. This was like this before Obamacare
here=hear
Truth bump.
This is entirely correct, and people should be aware of the reality of these situations. In my view, it is entirely acceptable for an elderly patient to state and document that they do not want to have resuscitation attempted if they suffer sudden death, but this has to be spelled out before hand, including the details of what they do and don't want done (e.g. attempted cardioversion, but no chest compressions or intubation, etc.). In cases in which a patient has requested this, and resuscitation attempts were made anyway, lawsuits have resulted. This is not the same as assisted suicide. This is a decision for non-intervention when natural death occurs. Of course, this begs the question of 'what is natural death?'.
I see a lot of similarities with this situation. Staff may have been hesitant to initiate CPR on an 87 year old and the chances of her surviving even if the CPR had been started is next to zero. Had she been resuscitated there would have been a good chance she would have been brain dead. There comes a point where DNR orders are appropriate.
Thankfully it was not my mother because I know where both the “nurse” and I would be. The “nurse” would be in hell and I would be in jail.
Why call 911 then?
Who made the call? Why?
I had to put my mother into a care facility a couple of times in 2010 when I went out of town. Each time I had to specify DNR or Full Code. I chose Full Code.
But 911 was called. Does that not in effect override a DNR?
When I was taking care of my terminally ill mother, hospice nurses told me specifically to NOT call an ambulance or they would be obligated to try revive her.
When she checked into the Old Folks’ Home, she signed a DNR.
Her wishes were fulfilled.
It doesn't sound like it was an end life facility. I am not knowledgeable about this sort of thing. Did I miss something?
Death-Care ................................................................ FRegards
‘From the American HEART Association: “Only an estimated 8% of victims who suffer a SCA outside of a hospital setting survive.”’
What is your point?
The Daily Mail reports the woman had signed a “do not resuscitate” order.
I meant to include this link to the Daily Mail story. It explains more about the policy.
Brain damage begins to set in after six minutes, except occasionally in the case of a cold water dry drowning. Hard call to make when your on a first responder dive team. I was on such a team years ago, and had to make that call twice. One lived, the other I had to take a pass. Both very hard calls.
I, also along with my two RN sisters had to make the same call for my 86 year old mother in 06. She had a DNR of her own volition. We respected her wishes.
The nursing home confiremed its policy is to wait for EMS to get there and start CPR.
What the hell? What satanic vision inspired this policy, what bureaucratic POS dreamed it up? The place is named wrong; it’s Screwtape Gardens.
I am a nurse and an EMT. I cannot imagine working in a place that tells me not to do CPR on someone who wants it done, although I will honor a DNR. If you wait ten minutes for EMS to get there, you might as well not bother with CPR at all.
The ever growing love of death, both individual and collective.
The odds of her survival were remote at best. Why risk being sued for doing it wrong or against the patient’s will, for such a low chance of survival. The facility was just being smart. Harsh, yes, but they aren’t in that business to make mortals live forever.
Six or eight years ago, a relative and I were in the drive of his house and noticed a commotion at the neighboring farm. A car was parked beside the road, hazard lights flashing, and three or four kids were running around screaming beside a couple of tractors in the neighbors yard. We hopped in the car and drove the quarter mile down to his place, and learned that the farmer had got himself wrapped up between the drive wheels of the separate tractors as he tried to jump start one from the other. My relative drove quickly back to his place and got one of his tractors and a chain, which we hooked up to the drive wheel of the smaller tractor. The poor devil, at this point, was still alive and talking to us; I was an army medic and figured I might be able to help. Just as we started to pull the tractors apart, an ambulance pulled up, paramedics rushed out and considered the situation, then ordered us to do nothing, informing us that the medical examiner was on his way. They would not allow us to do anything, threatening us with possible arrest if we tried to pull the tractors apart, despite our protests that he didn’t need a medical examiner, he needed paramedics. Nonetheless, they made us wait. When the medical examiner finally showed up about twenty minutes later, the poor guy was long dead, and once he was pronounced, they let us go ahead and separate the tractors.
It’s not likely that anything could have been done for the guy; when we got him out his guts spilled out on the ground: one of the tractor’s axles had disemboweled him. But to this day I’ll be sorely tempted to refuse to aid a person in this type of predicament if I find out the guy’s a lawyer. The lousy bastards are ruining this country.
True, but common areas at an old people’s home ought to have a defibrillator. Witnessed collapse, immediate defibrillation and CPR could bring that 8% up. Although an 87 y.o.’s chances of making it out of the hospital after such an event are very poor.
The nurse and facility should be charged with murder.
Just wanted to say that in the Bakersfield area people are more likely to be CONSERVSTIVE than liberal. I know a lot of people think “fruits and nuts” but so do most people in Bakersfield about the coastal Calis.
Sorry, I have to disagree.
There's nothing in the article indicating that any DNR was in effect or that this was an end-of-life facility. Had the patient signed a DNR order, the nurse could have just informed the dispatcher of that fact and avoided all this.
If the people who put grandma in the home were not aware of that “policy” that home will be sued up the tuckus. As well it should if that is the case.
Wonder if grandma knew it was their policy.
the article says there was NO DNR
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