14 DAY TRIAL // A tape released by the Bakersfield Fire Department containing a 911 call conversation reveals a nurse refusing to help a senior at a nursing home because it is against the policy of the facility.
The incident occurred at the Glenwood Gardens Nursing Home in Bakersfield, where 87-year-old patient Lorraine Bayless suddenly passed out. She died in hospital care later that day, LA Times clarifies.
You can hear the operator's pleas as she tells the nurse that Bayless will die without CPR. She responds by bringing up the assisted living facility's rules on not to intervene during rescue operations.
“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 dispatcher keeps saying.
She then asks the nurse to get another resident or a passerby to help out the senior, but she refuses once again.
“Give the phone to that passerby … this woman’s not breathing enough," she adds.
Glenwood Gardens officials are standing by the nurse, and have issued a statement stressing that she has followed protocol.
“In the event of a health emergency at this independent living community our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives,” says executive director, Jeffrey Toomer.
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