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Nurse refuses to do CPR on woman dying, paramedics begging for help

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Oldgamer said:
So I guess in a nutshell that nurse or aid could have given life saving aid to the elderly woman and would have been protected by the Good Samaritan laws.
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Good Samaritan laws generally don't cover medical professionals if it's related to their job duties. I'm not sure where this nurse/nurse's aide would fall but it's something to be careful of.
 
Acanthus said:
She had signed a DNR.

The operator was just trying to do her job, but this is overblown by a huge degree.

The patient was elderly and in poor health and had decided not to be resuscitated.

Not only were they following her wishes, they could be sued if they did not.
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She DID NOT have a DNR, the reports of the DNR were all proven false.
 
The truth is all we have is her family opinion that she would have wanted to die naturally, nothing actually written from her stating as such.
 
DCal430 said:
She DID NOT have a DNR, the reports of the DNR were all proven false.
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This is moot. Not having a signed DNR on file at a particular facility != not having DNR orders

At my hospital it's just a blue piece of paper a couple pages in where people are either Full Code, Allow Natural Death, some are pressors only... It's specific to each place and doesn't follow them around. Hell, most aren't filled out and are just blank. People from ECF's / Nursing homes etc come to my hospital each day and get intubated and put on vents until someone finally gets a hold of aunt Shirley 2000 miles away in Texas who has power to make these decisions and aunt Shirley let's us know the patient should have been given comfort and let go. Just because we don't see the DNR does not mean these patients don't have clear advance directives and DNR/DNI.
 
PokerGuy said:
I'm on the fence on this one. Yes, if I saw someone in need I'd like to think I'd do whatever I could to help... but on the logical side, there are a lot of very big potential downsides to that.

Had the nurse tried CPR, she could have been sued for not doing it correctly and she could have been fired for not following protocol of the employer. In a society filled with litigious scum, it's easy to understand how someone would shy away from doing something that could carry liability with it.
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I'd take the job loss over not attempting to save a life..the suing part would make me a little more nervous, but it still wouldn't stop me. She was old as hell though.
 
umbrella39 said:
This is moot. Not having a signed DNR on file at a particular facility != not having DNR orders

At my hospital it's just a blue piece of paper a couple pages in where people are either Full Code, Allow Natural Death, some are pressors only... It's specific to each place and doesn't follow them around. Hell, most aren't filled out and are just blank. People from ECF's / Nursing homes etc come to my hospital each day and get intubated and put on vents until someone finally gets a hold of aunt Shirley 2000 miles away in Texas who has power to make these decisions and aunt Shirley let's us know the patient should have been given comfort and let go. Just because we don't see the DNR does not mean these patients don't have clear advance directives and DNR/DNI.
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It is not Moot, there is absolutely no evidence she had a DNR, an in fact their is evidence she had no DNR.
 
LumbergTech said:
I'd take the job loss over not attempting to save a life..the suing part would make me a little more nervous, but it still wouldn't stop me. She was old as hell though.
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87 year olds who keel over do not have a realistic chance of coming back from CPR. I wouldn't risk my job in order to go through the gestures of futile CPR.
 
umbrella39 said:
I don't think you really understand what a DNR is and isn't. Oh well...
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I know exactly what a DNR is, and I know it doesn't follow people around. There simply is no evidence she had any type of DNR at any location, or on file with anyone. Both the location and the fire department have come out and said they have no record of her ever having any DNR.
 
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DCal430 said:
I know exactly what a DNR is, and I know it doesn't follow people around. There simply is no evidence she had any type of DNR at any location, or on file with anyone. Both the location and the fire department have come out and said they have no record of her ever having any DNR.
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A "Do Not Resucitate" or DNR, when presented, legally, to health care responders, means exactly that. Do not resucitate."

This Nursing Home/Independent Living, was exercising the rights of their ward, and their staff, etc., all with the mutual purpose of serving as an end of life vessel, for the patient.

No one has come out and said how the staff of the independent living community did their very best to facilate her life, and enjoyment there of.

But at some point it is time to go... and this is what death looks like, in our highly regulated, and surveilled world.

-John
 
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