AN elderly woman who collapsed at a US aged care home has died after a staff member refused to perform CPR because it was against the facility's policy.
Local media reports say when the 86-year-old resident of Glenwood Gardens in Bakersfield, California, collapsed at the facility around 11am Tuesday a staff member called 911, but refused to give the woman CPR.
The Los Angeles Times reports that 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.
In the dramatic 911 call, Bakersfield fire dispatcher Tracey Halvorson can be heard pleading with the nurse to start CPR on the elderly woman.
"It's a human being," Halvorson said. "Is there anybody that’s willing to help this lady and not let her die?"
Silence.
"Um, not at this time."
Halvorson continues begging the nurse to begin CPR or to find a passerby or anyone who would be willing to help.
"I understand if your facility is not willing to do that," Halvorson told the nurse. "Give the phone to that passerby, that stranger…this woman’s not breathing enough.
"She’s going to die if we don’t get this started.… I don’t understand why you’re not willing to help this patient."
The nurse is then heard talking to someone else at the facility.
"She's yelling at me," she said of Halvorson, "and saying we have to have one of our residents perform CPR. I'm feeling stressed, and I'm not going to do that, make that call."
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.
- With AP
