An 87-year-old woman in the United States has died after the staff at the retirement village she lived in refused to preform CPR, when she suffered a heart attack.
When Lorraine Bayless collapsed on the floor of Glenwood Gardens retirement home in Bakersfield, staff did the right thing – they picked up the phone and called emergency services.
But what happened next will make the hairs on your arm stand up.
Listen to the phone call:
http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/nurses-refuses-to-perfrom-cpr/?utm_source=Mamamia.com.au&utm_campaign=350957f81f-Mamamia_Newsletter&utm_medium=email
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Wow sad 😦
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Thanks.
OMG!! seriously!?! how can someone at the home be THIS ignorant to the needs of one of their residents?? :O
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It’s happened a lot here in Vancouver too, nurses within those homes that have refused to do what’s necessary and elderly who have paid the price for their mistakes, what a world huh? 😦
What price a human life…
That question came to mind for me, when I first heard the nurse refuse to save her life. How much to save one’s life? 😦
The old are not valued in capitalist societies. 😦
Under the laws of most Australian states, there is no legal obligation to perform CPR or in any way assist someone who is in trouble.
Seriously? here in Canada and the States that would be considered neglect and in the end adding to murder, what blows me away though is how the daughter told media she was satisfied at how it was handled. Wha?? O_O
This case was in the USA.
Yes, I was surprised by the daughter’s response.
Something fishy about that, hummm!
This is one of those stories that begs to have another side uncovered, but, no matter what, on the face of it, “independent living communities” almost by definition–I mean, why go to such places otherwise–with nurses available, need a bold-print “protocol” that says “you’re here because you know how to save lives, so do it.” An analogy: If Lorraine Bayless were at my YMCA, and she collapsed on the treadmill, we have defibrillators on the walls and several trained staff members–not nurses even–for whom the protocol is save the life. This is just an example. The DEFIB machine is on the wall; the assumption is that someone will step up and use it to save the person. The nurse who wouldn’t is like the DEFIB. Unused.There’s been a missed step here, or so it seems.
Patty
Yes, it does not compute.
This one was a complete mess. If the facility has a DNR (do not resuscitate) order, which the patient would have signed with her doctor, then the person would have to not be breathing or have a heartbeat for that to apply. But if alive and having a heart attack warrants phoning 911. The staff member was bound legally to not do CPR if the patient coded, which the patient was on her way to. So then what to do? It’s a very complicated mess. I would not want to be on a jury for this one or deciding the fate of that facilities worker. Personally, I would have done CPR once I set in motion the emergency medical system, 911.
We need to sit down with a cup of something and Tara and Bella (well maybe only Tara, Bella’s a big girl) and chat about this one. It’s a good example of an ethical, moral and legal dilemma scenario.
Your doggy momma friend signing out for now.
Yup, a veritable ethical, moral, medical and legal dilemma. I think it is even worse in less-developed countries. I guess the facility was guarding against litigation if the CPR went awry. 😦
I guess if you or I had been the nurse, we’d be jobless!
Agree about less developed countries, sadly. And, yes, you and I would be without a job. Such a terribly sad situation.
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http://lovelyseasonscomeandgo.wordpress.com
this is truly sad, I guess someone was looking forward to an inheritance and really don’t value the life.
That thought did cross my mind but i guess we don’t know the family dynamics.
It wouldn’t surprise me!
🙂
This is beyond disgraceful. That facility had a duty of care to do what they could to save that lady’s life – screw the policies! A person’s life is more important. I hope that stupid cow that refused to give CPR has the same thing done to her one day! She deserves it! They have no morals or they would NOT have let that poor old lady die. As for her daughter, what kind of horrible, twisted soul could possibly think that this facility’s actions were adequate??? She obviously didn’t love her mother.
It is disgusting, economics triumphs over human life. 😦
I don’t know how these people live with themselves. Or how they can get away with this!
I understand that there will be an investigation, so they may not get away with it.
I hope they don’t. Thanks for blogging this!
Thanks for participating in the discussion. 🙂
I heard that phone call on the radio yesterday. It is hard to imagine refusing to do something that might help, even if the nurse was concerned about her job. Really. I sometimes fear that we are losing some basic compassion and decency. We need to take better care of each other for the good of all of us.
Absolutely, otherwise we lose our humanity, surely. 😦
i remember when this happened – it absolutely sickened me.
It was tragic and surprising. One wonders about the duty of care that the institution owed the lady.
My cousin who is a nurse were just talking about this this afternoon. It’s a tough situation. It reminded me of the time that I found a man in the bush all bloodied and not moving. 911 was called and 911 instructed me to touch the man and pull him up in a sitting position. I said I will not touch the man because of all the blood. I don’t have gloves with me. Get the ambulance right now. Good thing 911 operator did not insist that I touch him. It was a dilemma for me. Finally the ambulance came, gloves on, took the man away. Don’t know what happened to the man. I did not receive any follow up with 911 nor the police. With this incident, there might be a change of law.
That must have been so hard for you. 😦
Moving him may not have beeen the right thing to do, anyway when you didn’t know whether he had any bone fractures or internal injuries.