Retirement home nurse refuses CPR to dying woman [View all]

It is beyond belief that a qualified nurse would refuse to give CPR to a resident of her retirement facility, allowing her to just lie on the floor in front of her gasping for breath. The reason she gave was that the retirement home does not allow staff to administer help in an emergency, only call 911, which the nurse did. The 911 operator begged her to get help from anyone, just grab someone from off the street or the gardner she suggested. The nurse continued to refuse. The woman got worse and the 911 operator pleaded with the nurse for seven minutes to do something for the 87-year-old resident to no avail.

Lorraine Bayless died at the Glenwood Gardens retirement home in Bakersfield, Calif. on February 26. California has a "Good Samaritan" law which the 911 operator told the nurse and explained liability for the nurse's actions were on the emergency medical system. Continued refusal while the nurse watched the resident die. A California official said, "How a nurse can do that is beyond comprehension." Greg Crist, a senior vice president at the American Health Care Association also commented, "Staff members are 'required to perform and provide CPR' unless there's a do-not-resuscitate order," which there wasn't in Bayless' case.

Jeffrey Toomer, Exec. Dir. of Glenwood Gardens, said the nurse followed the facility's policy. And what is even more unbelievable, the daughter of Lorraine Bayless, herself a nurse, agreed with the nurse who let her mother die. This is about as cold-hearted as it gets and you have to wonder about the mentality of that kind of thinking. Also, if I were the other residents of this home, I would be working on arrangements to get out at the earliest date. If there isn't a complete investigation of this incident, there is no justice.

Read more here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=173490784

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