There are certain things most of us take for granted. One of those things is that if someone has any kind of medical knowledge, whether it's basic first aid (and I'm including knowing CPR here) or the most knowledgable, skillful doctor, and a person in proximity to that person suddenly needs CPR, the knowledgable person will help out. If, for some reason, he or she can't help, that person will summon help. While waiting for EMS to show up, that knowledgable person will either do CPR and/or get a nearby person to help with it. That is what most of us would hope for.
So, what is with the nurse in the California assisted living facility who, last week, allowed an elderly woman to die, rather than start CPR on her?
In case you're unfamiliar with what I'm referring to, here is a link to the story from the LA Times ("Nurse refused to give CPR to elderly woman who later died"): http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/nurse-refuses-to-give-cpr-to-elderly-woman-who-later-died.html. Also, here is a link to the story, as covered by the Today Show: http://www.today.com/video/today/51024816/#51024816.
So, picture this: You send your loved one to an assisted living facility. You figure it's not a nursing home, but a place where your loved one (Mom, Dad, husband, wife, whoever) will get assisted living. There are nurses in the facility. You figure, okay, if something happens, the nursing staff will help out, especially if that something is something medical.
In this case, the elderly woman went into cardiac arrest. The nurse who discovered this called 9-1-1. On the 9-1-1 tape, the dispatcher is heard saying that CPR needs to be started while EMS is in route. The nurse then states that she can't do CPR. The dispatcher says she (the dispatcher) will talk the caller through how to do CPR, at which point, the caller states that she's a nurse, but the assisted living facility's protocol will not allow her to do CPR.
During the call, and before EMS has arrived, the dispatcher pleads with the nurse to find someone, anyone to do CPR on the elderly woman; yet, the nurse refuses to do so. The dispatcher says that the elderly woman will most likely die without CPR, yet the nurse refuses to get someone to start CPR, refuses to start CPR herself. And yes, the woman did die.
Another point that bothers me: the elderly woman's daughter has no problems with this, stating that her mother got "good care" at this particular facility. Good care? I'm sorry, but if a facility has caused your loved one's death, either directly (by giving that person the wrong medication, the wrong death, pushing him or her down a flight of stairs) or indirectly (not doing CPR, not giving care in a timely manner), that is NOT "good care." (I happen to have a unique perspective on this, in that a similar thing happened to one of my loved ones. I didn't decide that he had gotten "good care"; rather, I contacted a lawyer.)
First off all, if a facility decides that its medical personnel are not allowed to give medical care to its residents, even in (or especially in) an emergency, that facility needs to let its residents and their families know this in no uncertain terms. I don't know if this facility did, but I would feel having families and residents sign something to this effect, as well as have signs prominently displayed in common living areas so that everyone knows exactly what's what.
Secondly, doctors take a Hippocratic Oath, part of which is to "do no harm." I'm not sure if nurses are required to take this oath, too, but it would seem that if someone goes into one of the medical professions - EMTs, paramedics, nurses (RNs, LPNs, etc), doctors, technicians, and all forms of medical personnel - it would be to help others. If a person is not going to help others, while that may be legally allowed (and this seems questionable in this case), it would be ethically required. If you (or I) have the knowledge to do CPR on a person and there is a person in your care who needs CPR (or even a passer-by needs it), you might not have a legal obligation to do CPR, but you and I would have an ethical obligation to do so.
Personally, I don't know how that nurse can sleep at night.
No comments:
Post a Comment