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Subscribe to RSSPolice in Bakersfield, Calif., say that no criminal charges will be filed in the death of an 87-year-old woman who was denied CPR by a nurse at her retirement home on the grounds that it violated company policy. Police say no laws were broken, and the woman's family said their loved one did not want any life-prolonging intervention.
Criminal charges will not be filed against anyone involved in the case of an elderly California woman who collapsed at a retirement home and later died after a nurse refused a 911 dispatcher’s pleas to perform CPR, police in Bakersfield, Calif., said Wednesday.
Lorraine Bayless fell unconscious and was barely breathing at the Glenwood Gardens independent living facility on Feb. 26, prompting staff to call for help. In a dramatic 911 call released earlier this week, an unidentified nurse cites a company policy that prohibited her from performing the potentially life-saving technique, and the 87-year-old woman was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police launched an investigation on Monday to see if elder abuse laws had been broken, but the department said on Wednesday that it had concluded its probe and will not be filing charges.
“The investigation revealed that no criminal statutes had been violated,” the Bakersfield Police Department said in a statement Wednesday night.
While Bayless’ daughter reportedly said she was satisfied with her mother’s case, the death raised questions about the retirement home’s policy and whether the nurse had an ethical obligation to help.
Related stories:
Policy questioned after nurse refuses to do CPR
Opinion: Ethics required medical staff to do CPR, even if policy didn't
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Where has it been confirmed that she had a DNR? I have searched the the web and am unable to find any report where this has been confirmed and it isn't mentioned in this article. Also HIPPA would prevent the facility from conveying the DNR to the 911 operator over open air. The only information that is ever conveyed from a nursing facility to 911 is location, age, and medical issue. In this case she collapsed, had shallow breathing and her location. One can also presume that this was an unexpected turn in her health, since she was in the independent living section of this facility, and required the 911 call.
Oh, for the love of God, IT'S HIPAA, not HIPPA! If you can't spell it correctly, why do you think you're an expert regarding it? Further, a phone call is not open air, as you put it, and telling a dispatcher that someone is in cardiac arrest, which from all reports the woman was not, is not a HIPAA violation, even if the patient's name is given, which rarely, if ever, done.
As for the victim suffering, what can or cannot be done is specifically addressed in a DNR and those directions should be honored.
The call wasn't required. Someone nearby called. Why presume anything? There was no crime, her family is okay with what happened and the woman is at peace.
A specific DNR isn't required. It was implicit in her choosing to move to this particular facility. She was aware that their policy was to NEVER give CPR to a resident. She was good with that.
The patient may not have required CPR if she was breathing. Nevertheless, even if there is an order in place not to revive a person, does that require that the person be allowed to suffer? What if she was choking? Does a DNR order preclude rending any aid at all?
Maybe it was an assisted living rather than long term care facility. However, there are still people who give out medication, and the only people other than family members who can pour pills have to be nurses. Nobody can diagnose or render aid over the phone. You can't blame the 911 dispatcher, and that is hard for me to say. Somebody there should have been qualified to determine what was required.
911 dispatchers irritate me in general anyway. All the tapes that are played on TV make them sound like idiots. I can't even stand to listen to how stupid they sound, telling someone who was shot in the face and was trying to call for help "What? I can't understand you." It seemed clear enough to me. Or when some poor kid says "Shhh, he's coming"and the operator says "WHAT??? HELLO HELLO!!!!" and got the kid shot in the head. Or when the ask stupid questions like when the victim says he/she has been shot, and they reply "You were shot?? With a gun????" No, with a rubber band, what do you think? I know they mean well, but, Jeez. That is an entire 'nuther subject. Don't get me started. I don't know what I will do if I ever have to talk to one. I pray that day is far off.
At least this dispatcher tried to do something. They have to stay on the phone with you anyway, she could hardly discuss the weather while someone is laying on the floor suffering. It certainly give one pause to consider where they want to be when they are helpless and someone else is in charge. Putting a white uniform on someone does not make them a nurse.
Two points, Joe - no one ever said the "nurse" allowed her to "suffer'....she stayed with her, by her side, and called 911 for help, and I am sure reassured her while waiting, & for all we know, may have provided a cushion for her head and something to cover her. And, second, to clarify for you....this was not even an assisted living facility...it was "INDEPENDENT LIVING". There are many places like this around the country....several levels of "care".......from independent living where they may get meals and light housekeeping (if they want) , to assisted living, where they have some supervision and assistance with medications, and activities of daily living (bathing, dressing), and then the nursing care level, where they require the knowledge and care of a licensed nurse.......These may all be at the same named facility, but on different floors or areas, and have different staff for each area.
She lived at an independent living facility NOT an assisted living, independent living facilities provide housekeeping services, meals, social activities and some times transportation usually for a small extra fee. Medicare and insurances do not cover the cost of independent living. It is basically an apartment in a complex that only houses people over 55-65. They are not licensed to provide medical care.
Medicare doesn't cover assisted living either. Most insurances don't cover it either, some will cover only the cost of personal hygiene care bathing, toileting, administering medications. Some states do not require a licensed nurse be employed by the assisted living. Medication aides with less than 2 weeks training give the medications and aides give the personal care.
Medicare only pays for SKILLED care (nursing home) for 120 days for the elderly. Bathing, toileting etc is not skilled by Medicare guidelines. After that you are on your own even if you can't bathe, toilet or feed yourself. It's been like that since the beginning, Obamacare has nothing to do with it.
The nurse may have worked in one of the other facilities on the same campus, each would have their own staffing and licensing. The incident occurred in a dining room, it's possible she just happened to be there at the time.
Listening to the recording, it seemed to me the dispatcher never gave her a chance to tell her the lady was a DNR before she instructed her to begin CPR. It also sounded like she told the dispatcher the lady fainted or passed out and had a faint heartbeat, was breathing but in distress.
Just because she had a DNR wouldn't stop her from calling EMS if the lady fainted. It would just keep her or anyone from performing CPR after the heart STOPPED beating and she wasn't breathing.
I listened to the 911 call and do not remember any mention of a DNR. If it had been mentioned to the 911 dispatcher she would not have been so insistant about someone who would be willing to help this woman. I have a question about this facility that has a nurse on it's staff. WHY? She obviously is useless and unwilling to do her job. I agree that this "nurse" should have her name released to the public. In her own voice on the 911 recording she is clearly more concerned about what her boss thinks than what a caring human being would do. There is no way to sugar coat this. A licensed nurse stood by and let a woman die while she was on the phone making excuses about her heartless inaction.
red,
It happens everyday. Nurses & doctors watch people die every day because the person has clearly laid out what they do and don't want for care.
Redhead, a nurse who follows instructions regarding resuscitation IS doing her job. As for what else they do, there are a thousand things, and they work very hard for substandard pay and little if any appreciation.
I just hope when you are 87 that you get a nurse like that one. Research it more...read posts by people who know what happens when CPR is done in these cases.
If they release the nurse's name one of the chimpanzees who have been spouting murder and torture fantasies about her on previous threads might go and attack her; is that what you want, Redhead? The stroke victim was living independently in an apartment in a complex for seniors that provided limited services such as dining and cleaning. If you have a DNR, you usually do not make all the workers at your apartment complex aware of it. In this case, with a whole building full of people who have a good chance of dying relatively soon, it would be impossible to expect all the building staff to memorize the care preferences of every resident. Either they can have a "no-code" policy, and encourage people who want extremely aggressive treatment at the end of life to choose some other facility, or they can have a "code" policy, probably spend more money to hire medical personnel to stand around doing nothing most of the time, and require every resident who doesn't want to end up on machines to carry her papers around with her at all times.
She had a DNR clause; thanks to our American media, they don't really disclose all the facts. When the patient has a dnr(do no resuscitate) you don't do anything because that is the patients wishes to die. As usual, way to leave out all the facts media people!
You don't do CPR on a person who is breathing and has a pulse! /helllooooo??? What don't people understand about this? You call an ambo, which is what the nurse did! Her actions were totally appropriate. The 911 operator is an idiot, who stepped way outside her position, education, and training, and should be fired!
This will be Standard Operating Procedure when OBAMACARE becomes fully implemented ...
Troll.
It's already fully implemented for me. I don't care to linger, sucking up money and resources that could be better used on younger people. Besides, some of those end of life measures are little more than legalized torture.
I watched my own mother struggle so hard and she told me that if I didn't let her die when she wanted to, that she would come back and haunt me. So I let her die, even though she wasn't 70 yet. It was honoring her wishes. She had a procedure done and was fine, but when I got to the hospital the next day, there she was on every machine known to man, because she had an "incident" in the night. I asked them if anyone had actually read her orders before doing so. She'd had yet another (I think that was the 8th) stroke in the night. I understood the ramifications and said I wasn't angry, but if they didn't take all this stuff off of her and let her die the way she wanted to, there would be trouble.
I'm not going out that way, thanks.
And, while this really doesn't have anything to do with the article, I believe I received a sign that I had done the right thing on the night my mother died. I was in bed crying and my husband had taken the kids for a drive so I could grieve in peace (I was probably scaring them I was crying so hard). They returned home within half an hour demanding that I go with them to see something. I didn't want to go. I lay down in the back seat of the car. We pulled up to a very busy intersection in a suburb of Chicago and there, sitting on a pole, was a snowy owl. There are no snowy owls in suburban Chicago. When we pulled off the road to look at the bird, it did not display typical owl hunting behavior; instead it flew around in a circle and then looked right at me. Then it repeated the circle. I believe this owl was my mother's way of telling me good-bye, and that I had done the right thing by setting her free to fly home to where ever people go at the end.
nurse or no nurse, law or no law...anyone (or a group of people) who would let a person die when they could save that person's life with a minimal amount of effort... are immoral, uncaring, and cold blooded @!$%#s. I hope they all rot in hell. Judgmental? Yes, because helping would have taken little or no effort.
Clearly you've nerve worked a code if you think it is very little effort and you've never had a person begging you to let them die the next time and asking why you intervened the first time when they had Advance Directives specifically saying they did not want intervention.
Haha...minimal effort? Another person who has no clue trying to impose his ignorance on everyone else. Save her life? Please share with us your knowledge of that occurrence.
Wow...I see a lot of people defending this nurse (RN/LPN doesn't really mater at this point)
so I said to myself 'A medical professional since 1986 in the NYC area answering 911 calls for FDNY/EMS'
maybe I had it wrong the whole time (Morally or ethically NOT medical protocol wise!).
Sorry to disappoint anyone but unless this person had a valid DNR MY view/opinion is to start CPR and continue until emergency personnel show up "EMT/Medic etc...'
I saved maybe handful of patients in my career and probably half of them lived a few more years BUT I also had people die in my arms 'last breath kind of @!$%#' and I ALSO had a few people with DNR's and were going out of the picture 'terminal ill patients being sent home to die and the family is holding a vigil in the living room with a hearse up the block,that kind of scene, and guess what happens? The Patient changes there minds and decides they want to live and the Patient calls 911 themselves because the FAMILY member's won't' Believe me when you have the grim ripper biting your ass you are allowed to change your mind...when you look into a patients eyes and see the fear and all you have to do is give them a little oxygen to prolong there death...its totally worth it to see the relief in that Patients eyes, they can breath again.
In closing my little rant I expect that I will always try and save someones life if they drop dead in front of me even though they might have a DNR filled somewhere...unless someone HANDS it to me I will do to the best of my abilities to save a life. {And THAT nurse by the way better have a long talk with herself regarding her moral obligation...if she feels she did the right thing...so be it .}
"That nurse" WAS, in fact, doing her job ethically, morally, and legally....and despite your claims of glory, you clearly are not, nor have you ever been, a medical professional. You have no clue what you are howling about, and are making yourself look foolish at best.
Got to love those that say medical professional or I worked in the medical field! Generally code for "I dont know what I'm talking about but maybe if I include that they might not catch on" LOL
You said that well. It is your opinion and nothing else. Perhaps instead of answering the phone you might have been actually giving CPR and feeling ribs break under your hands. Then perhaps you wouldn't be giving your opinion that has nothing to do with this case. CPR isn't always indicated and it isn't always the moral or legally correct thing to do. If you worked that long doing what you say I wonder how you wouldn't know that?
I am not a nurse but worked as a CNA/CMT for many years, I've worked in nursing homes, assisted living facilites (both skilled and unskilled) as well as for home health and hospice providers. While I can't say that I've been able to read or watch all the reporting on this incident, I would like to know if the patient has advance directives in place. If she has a Do Not Resuscitate order in place then the nurse would have been legally liable if she administered life saving techniques, even if she saved the woman's life. I know that I have worked in facilities that require us to call for emergency assistance even in the event of a DNR. If that, indeed, was the case she should have stated that on the phone. Facilities put policies in place for the good of the facility, as well as, but not always, for the good of the patient. I would wager that, like the places I have worked, they know the laws and limits they have to work with and create their policies from there. Believe me, they are going to do what they can to protect themselves from liability. It is the responsibility of the facility to make available all the information about their facility but it is also the responsibility of the people who are considering moving into the facility to educate themselves with all the information available to them, and to ask questions regarding anything they don't understand or hasn't been covered in the process of choosing and moving into a facility. I have seen time and time again families that do not do the research, do not ask questions, or look into all the possibilities. Many times these families just want to put them in a place that is affordable, or to simply get the elderly person out of their hair. The article said that the daughter was satisfied with the care her mother received. That, coupled with the fact that no laws had been broken leads me to believe that the woman had some kind of dadvanced directive. Keep in mind that, at least in my state, all heathcare proviedrs are required to keep their CPR and First Aid cetifications current. That is another CYA move but if you perform CPR while uncertified you run the risk of being sued if you break a rib or cause some other damage, even if you save their life. Believe me, performing CPR is hard work and broken ribs etc are quite easily accomplished. We don't have all the facts, at least I don't, surrounding this situation but I do not blame the worker for following her company's policy.
We still do not know whether or not this was really a "nurse"..again the public uses that term for everything from a housekeeper, uncertified "helper", nurse assistant, licensed practical/vocational nurse, to an RN...so we do not know what functional level this person possessed. Secondly she was not working in the capacity of "nurse", so her job description would not encompass "nursing" duties and in fact she could place herself on shaky legal ground if she were to function as a "nurse" in some situations. Instead of responding with outrage when things such as this are reported, it is much more intelligent to look for information first.
They have 'Do Not Resuscitate' for a reason people. Duh!!!!!!!
If there is a DNR order, why did the staff call 911.
A DNR does not preclude treatment for non-fatal issues and calling EMS was the appropriate choice. I have seen no account that specifically claims the woman did not have a DNR. That doesn't mean they're not out there but I haven't seen them.
It scares me how many people are confused about this issue.
A DNR means if you are found lifeless and not breathing, no attempt will be made to rescue you...thats it.
Other than that a DNR doesnt apply.
From all the stories I have read, all stated the woman did NOT have a DNR in place. But that it was the facilities policy that they don't give CPR to anyone under any circumstance. If this woman didn't have a DNR her entire life how do we know she understood this facility would not respond to her needs.
I don't care where you are, if you don't have a DNR in place you help the person even if it is only to make them comfortable. Why wasn't there a nurse who could assess the woman's condition? There is always supposed to be a nurse on duty.
No DNR? Then it is your responsibility to help the best you can, especially if you are a nurse. If you are a nurses aide, it is your responsibility to get the nurse there asap.
Sigh. Who said no one helped the lady? The lady knew and wanted to be there for that reason, and who said the nurse wasn't trying to make her comfortable? She did help her. She didn't jump on her and break all her ribs with no chance of saving her life to be anything but pain.
DNR means Do Not Resuscitate, not Do Not Make Comfortable (or do not give antibiotics, do not give the Heimlich maneuver, or anything else). Doing CPR on an 87-year-old is the opposite of making them comfortable. Even if you have a DNR order, you usually do not carry it around in an envelope around your neck, and if you live in a facility that has promised not to have its staff do CPR, you don't [or shouldn't] have to.
It is said that she had a DNR how beneficial would it be pushing on and 87 year old chest and breaking ribs that would puncture lungs. In this case the family should have been called first to decide what to do as to ignore the DNR then proceed from there. Give her o2 and let her go on to glory,
She had a duty under the Good Samaritan Law where she wouldn't of faced any backlash for helping this women. I felt that before seeing the woman had a DNR, anyone in their right mind would wonder why this person didn't do all she could to help this elderly lady. Obviously she didn't know or she would of told 911 and the operator wouldn't of been begging her for her help. It would be easier to understand not helping her because of the DNR than because of policy. If the nurse knew I don't think she would of broke any HIPPA law with 911, the DNR has to be posted anyway for any medical personal to see, including EMT. It sure would of taken care of any confusion, just state there's a DNR and that would of been it. Not knowing what the facility policy is on something like that I can only speculate. The daughter seems to be ok with it, I guess that's all that matters.
She was on the clock good sam does not apply.
The Good Samaritan law does not protect medical professionals, and it does not even apply under these circumstances.
AND IT'S HIPAA!!!!!!!!!
The nurse would have broken a HIPAA if she announced a code status on anyone to a 911 operator. A DNR and any other medical information is only passed on a "Need to know basis". A 911 operator doesnt need to know anything, other than the event happening, the address and the specific location inside a building, thats it. This is just proof that all the trees were killing to print HIPAA pamphlets is pure waste, obviously, no one reads them.
OK Here goes nothing. A little basic education for the masses that get there medical info from TV. There is no "oath" for nurses, the most she might have taken was the nightengale pledge which many schools do not even do anymore and even if she had taken it there is nothing binding about it, if you are so sure based on your extensive viewing of grey's anatomy or ER then google it!
Many reports have the person as not even being a nurse, but that would spark as much debate so NBC and MSNBC keep saying it was a nurse to get people excited.
This was an independent living facility, many have screwy rules based on state regs. I know if a resident falls here in a facility your not even allowed to pick them up you are supposed to call EMS.
Has anybody on here done CPR on a small frame 87yo female? Until you have and understand that the outcome is nothing like you see on TV, please don't shoot your mouth off saying you would jump in and save her no matter what. The older folks tend to have rather brittle bones, just think what that rib cage is going do after a few compressions.
Many state that they would not care about their job and do it anyway. Well that's great but you better be prepared to give up your career and all your schooling with it. You see if you lose your job by practicing in a facility with no licensure over-site, such as in this facility, you will probably lose your license as well. No license=No career. For those that will say the good sam laws would have protected her, this too is incorrect, remember she was on the clock, not a good Samaritan.
A voice of reason....and education....in the wilderness! Thanks, Rod!
Not my first rodeo! LOL
You two make me sick as a nurse. You must be the ones who eat their young!! We as nurses have a responsibility to help...not hinder. If this person was DNR...why was 911 called? And regardless of "policy" she would NOT have been liable for saving someones life. I don't know what state you practice in but your are disgusting and I am glad that none of my family will ever be a pt of yours! And it doesn't matter what her size of weight, I've broken ribs on a 200lb person! Even if she wasn't a nurse she could have gotten help somewhere, she wouldn't even do that. Disgusting!!!
Windea, I hope you aren't ever my nurse is all I can say. The nurse didn't call 911. You kind of make me sick that you would say that to people who are being perfectly reasonable. You scare me a bit for your patients. You really don't see that if you break ribs on a 200lb person you are going to do a lot more damage on an 87 year old woman with brittle bones? It DOES matter what someone's size is...who taught you CPR? You seriously don't push as hard on a frail elderly woman as you do on a football player who has lots of fat and muscled to compress, right? Or maybe you missed that day of training. Not saying don't push of course, but common sense is needed here. Who said she didn't get help, and who said she didn't give help to the lady? She just didn't jump on her and smash her ribs to make herself feel better. She was found to have acted legally, and her family is satisfied with her actions. Why do you feel the need to impose your knee-jerk reaction to the situation?
Windea,
Rod and Retired RN understand when people has lived their lives and are tired and their bodies are worn out and are shutting down and they honor that person's DNR and they DON'T resuscitate.....thank God for medical personnel such as them. When my husband died on cancer 10 months ago....I held his hand and kissed his face during his last breath.....and bade him farewell.....out of pain, out of misery, out of a tired, worn out body......he had a peaceful smile as he entered the next realm. I would want to believe that at 87 years old this woman was ready to leave the earth "pain free" through the dying process......you really need to read about Near Death Experiences" they are almost all beautiful and blissful.........I DO NOT want anyone interfering with my death when it is my time. Don't be so selfish.....people do not live forever !
Sorry for the subject/verb disagreement ...............PEOPLE HAVE LIVED their lives, not HAS..also did not spell resuscitate correctly..........
Not certain, but from what I heard the woman had made it clear she did not want to be resuscitated. Also heard that the woman died at the hospital, and was alive on her own until the ambulance took her away, so CPR did not even come into play. Also heard that part of the beginning of the conversation was blocked, and that the 911 operator may be reprimanded for over reacting to the situation. Thats what I heard, but none of it shows in this article. Also, why doesn't anyone jump up and down when doctors order up morphine, the person really is in no pain, and the nurse shoots it in knowing full well that the old morphine dose is the final sleeper to these people.
Without a written DNR order or other document the "healthcare professionals" at the awaiting death center has the legal and ethical obligation to perform emergency care. No wonder you are "bigabamafan" your mindset fits in with the disaster known as Obamacare.
Nice trolling, Bigfoot. Ugh.
I hate Obamacare FYI. I am already having problems seeing a doctor, and I am not looking forward to it becoming almost 30% of my earnings over the next few years. And another FYI, the old lady was not part of any health care facility, she was in the independent living section. And she was still breathing on her own, and her heart was still pumping... no need for CPR. But it does make great copy for the media if you leave out the relevant facts.
I know that this is a sensitive subject and I have seen several post with biased opinions. The cold hard fact of the matter is that everyone is going to die. I know for myself that I do not want to die (especially when I reach my 80's) in an ER or ICU. I am in my 40's and I already have a Living Will and a Medical POA. I do not want to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state norby all the technology available. I want quality of life not quantity. Now let's look at statistics. The percentages of people surviving pre-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest to discharge from the hospital is less than 15%. That percentage rapidly decreases with elderly patients. I don't want to sound insensitive but more health care dollars are spent in the last 3-6 months of life. This is not quality and only delays the inevitable. There is no quality of life in those last 3-6 months. Usually the patient is in the ICU intubated, sedated, and on every pressor known. Why? Because most of the time the family cannot come to terms with loss, grief, or guilt. I believe everyone should talk to their family members while they are well and discuss end of life issues and have a plan in place. This would end problems like this. Let's summarize-Have a plan, discuss it with your family, doctor, pastor, friends, lawyer. If you want to attempt to live forever fine, for those like me who want to die with dignity at home and with family have that planned when you are younger and healthier.
If I were 87 and dead, no way I'd want someone snapping all my bones tearing me up inside so that if I made the 5% who lived, I'd have to lay there brain dead for who knows how long.
You don't want to live as a brain-damaged vegetable with a flail chest? Well, that just proves you are a liberal Democrat and probably from Kenya. </sarc>
WHAT'S THE POINT in hiring a retirement home to care for an elderly family member, if all you are going to do ischoke and do NOTHING when the key moment dictates that you, the geriatric nurse, DO SOMETHING ????
...and yet... you've done Nothing for the sweet, helpless elderly person in your care.
Quit your yob, and find a completely new career, nursey. Do not send your resume to me. Do not resuscitate your Nursing career; it is DOA.
Rest In Peace, Lorraine Bayless.
Apparently you are under the impression that if the super-old who have massive strokes are only given CPR, they can be made to live forever and never die. Guess what - young people sometimes die, but old people ALWAYS die. Every single one of 'em. The question is only when and how - and in most people interventions like CPR do a lot more to change the "how" than the "when." People do not go to either senior living centers or nursing homes to be kept alive forever.
Nursey? Wow...offensive, aren't you? She is resting peacefully because the lady there when she collapsed did the right thing.
I may be wrong but I never heard anything regarding DNR status. If patient was DNR why didn't nurse state that on the phone? That would have ended the disagreement! And if patient wasn't DNR then this nurse is a disgusting human and does not deserve to live themself!! I am a nurse and if there is no DNR order I'm giving CPR regardless because I am a decent human being I don't care about stupid policies. I hope people considering living at this facility decide to go live somewhere where their are caring staff, not just people there for a paycheck!
It was the reason the woman chose to live where she did. She knew the policy and was perfectly happy with it.
And if patient was DNR...why was 911 even called? Whole story is bull@!$%#!
THE NURSE DID NOT CALL 911. Read before you post!!!!! Stupid policies??? You are really scary if you really are a nurse. You don't care about your patient if you jump in there with CPR without thinking.
I wonder if the slacker that did not intervene was even a nurse and not some dumbass lazy nurse's aid who claims that she is a nurse.
Bet I bet she would read the story and learn about the subject before she posted. So who is a bit lazy here? And who is smarter here...her or you who call names with no reason? She was found to have acted appropriately. That's more than can be said about your post.
sunny 2 I agree with you totally.
Also all these idiots who think CPR is some major life saving tool are idiots any how . This out come has restored my faith that this country isn't totally off it's rocker. This woman is almost 90 years old. Her bones are probably like brittle twigs and her skin is like paper. Try compressing her chest 1.5 inches. It would probably kill her. The 911 person is the one who made this overly dramatic.
Sorry folks- your lack of acceptance that not everyone wants to live forever is not the problem of this lady who died, her family or the assisted living facility. Now I am sure some ass will come out with yet another dumb bill to make it mandatory to do CPR in every situation. This country will be bankrupted - not by lack of money but by stupidity and idiocy of the general populace. We need to have an honest discussion about life, death and quality of life in this country. It is long over due. Americans didn't used to be so afraid of death what happened.