Elderly woman dies after nurse refuses to do CPR

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. Authorities say an elderly woman being cared for at a Bakersfield retirement facility died after a nurse at the facility refused to perform CPR on the woman after she had collapsed.

Local media reports say when the 87-year-old resident of Glenwood Gardens collapsed at the facility around 11 a.m. Tuesday a staff member called 911, but refused to give the woman CPR.

Bakersfield television station ABC23 reports that in in refusing the 911 dispatcher's insistence that she perform CPR, the nurse can also be heard telling the dispatcher that it was against the retirement facility's policy to perform CPR.

An ambulance arrived several minutes after the call and took the woman to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

The retirement facility released a statement saying protocol was followed, but that a "thorough internal review of the matter" would be conducted.

[krisinal]

ER doc talks reality of CPR

http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/03/huntsville_hospital_er_physici.html

[JerzeeMike]

The facility in question was an INDEPENDENT care facility. The facility makes it's protocol known to incoming resident's (that's the law) and they sign a statement saying they & their family members understand that protocol. The adjacent skilled nursing facility does not have that protocol in effect where one would assume they have residents that sign DNRs as part of their chart. As a licensed healthcare professional, if the nurse had ignored the protocol while on facility grounds & initiated CPR on her own & had the resident survived but suffered deleterious effects from the CPR then she would have been open to litigation by the family & NOT covered by the state's Good Samaritan Act. I am a Registered Nurse & as such I am required to comply with the client's decision as implied by her & her family's acceptance of facility protocol when the resident moves in, regardless of my personal beliefs.

[sjkfluff]

That is RIGHT!!! The reason this is such big news is because it probably has not happened that much..These residents are on their own!!! They are NOT part of the health care facility!!! .Nurses have enough being dumped on them with the number of patients they have on their own in their facility...and to assume responsibility for an assisted living facility is like asking a elementary teacher to not only be responsible for their class but all other classes in the school! What they need to do is HIRE MORE NURSES!!!! America might start to see the way REAL HEALTH CARE IS NOW!!!! It is all about greed with these owners and they have always put $$$$$$ before patients..and residents in their assisted liv facilities...Some assisted living places will hire a nurse ...for very short money...but people are finding that it could be cheaper to stay home and have someone come in and care for you.....

[carolo43]

People need to chill out. The woman was 86 years old. Did she have a DNR order on file? Did she have Dementia? How long before she was found? Did she have a feeding tube and wearing diapers? Has she been in pain for a long time? Way too many questions left unanswered. If I had a DNR on file and CPR was preformed, not only would I be ticked off but the nursing home could be sued for not following my orders. People have the right to go out of this world as they please. It's not like she was 25.

[sjkfluff]

Absolutely...i think it was nice for the nurse to call 911...Do you think most nurses would? Nope...

[Necroscope84]

Alot of patients will sign a form stating they wish to be a DNR or Do Not Resuscitate. Alot of nursing homes are DNR because honestly there's not point in prolonging anothers suffering, not to mention prolonging the horribly expensive bills that loved ones and government have to pay. So this nurse did absolutely nothing wrong. There's no story here.

[Beaner96]

I have a simple solution to this dilemma!

When accepting a new resident in a nursing facility, have the family sign a waiver that defers liability when CPR is needed!

It's only common sense not to take a chance at being a victim of a jackpot lawsuit!

[Necroscope84]

They already do that. It's called DNR.

[fredisreallydead]

who ever says if I collapse don't revive me? You can collapse from just having low blood sugar! Are people this stupid? LOL

[VegasRunner]

A DNR only comes into play if a person has stopped breathing, not if they've just collapsed. If they're still breathing, then CPR is not needed. People are confusing when "revival" is needed and when medical care is needed.

[jhaden61]

I know this is going to be difficult to understand because of Obamacare and all the other garbage going on but patients do still have the choice on whether they want to be saved or not. Nowhere in this story does it say whether the patient had an agreement with the facility on what would happen in a case like this. The comments though about an internal investigation happening at the facility means the patient probably DID have a DNR agreement and didn't want to be brought back to life if something like this did happen.

[ReadItForYourself]

And you had to get an Obamacare jab in, didn't you. What did it do to make it difficult to understand? Does it even have any effect on this?

[carolo43]

I have had a DNR order for the last 10 years so obviously nothing to do with Obamacare. It's our RIGHT to not be forced to live in a body that is no longer viable or a mind no longer functioning. There is absolutely no evidence if this lady just went down or had been down for some time before she had been found. People need to shut up, mind their own damned business and let this family take care of their own.

[Bush-cheney-R-Terrorists]

Some lucky lawyer just made his year or ten. That nurse should be suspended for a year if not longer. The nursing home should also face equally severe penalties. Letting someone die seems to be against everything that health care stands for. Unless there are additional facts, the nurse and nursing home should be in hot water.

[cleric77]

Did this resident have a POA and stated that she didn't want any heroic
measures to stop her dying process-she wanted to die a "natural death" at her elderly age?

[ruplesan]

What if this woman's religious beliefs prevent her from doing CPR?