(SIOUX CITY, IA) It's a story that shocks most people. A California woman has died because a nurse wasn't allowed to give her CPR.
Lorraine Bayless collapsed at her senior living facility a week ago.
A frantic 911 operator pleaded with the nurse to step in or find help but to no avail.
Could something like that happen here to one of your loved ones? We asked that question to one local retirement community.
The 911 call from Glenwood Gardens Senior Living facility is chilling.
"Is there anybody that's willing to do it?" (Operator)
"We can't do that." (Nurse)
"Or are we just going to wait and let this lady die?" (Operator)
"Well that's why we're calling 911." (Nurse)
"We can't wait. She can't wait right now. She is stopping breathing." (Operator)
Lorraine Bayless died because the nurse would not perform CPR.
"If there's anybody, as a human being, is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?" (Operator)
"Not at this time." (Nurse)
"This employee it sounds like she was acting under the policies of the organization which I would expect ours to do the same," says Bev Zenor, the Executive Director for Sunrise Retirement Community in Sioux City.
But unlike the facility in California Sunrise Retirement community has a different policy - to resuscitate someone who's stopped breathing unless they specified otherwise.
"We encourage our people who have a out of hospital do not resuscitate (DNR) that they would wear a bracelet or something that would mark them no matter where they are," says Zenor.
And although this particular situation seems disturbing Zenor says the nurse was following the rules.
"I'm not shocked. I think it's an expectation that the employee knows the policies so they know whether they should or shouldn't start CPR," she says.
Zenor also says it's important for new residents to talk with the community and find out what its policy is when it comes to CPR and other medical interventions.
At the Siouxland Center for Active Generations, Jim Walsh thinks the Nurse acted professionally.
"I would have tried to help her but I probably wouldn't have given her CPR because of her age. You have to be very cautious with elderly people and performing CPR," says Walsh.
Still, the situation is not sitting well with Darrell Strong who has a similar story.
"I'm in the kitchen getting a last bite of something, and it didn't go down," says Strong.
He says the Nurse was wrong.
"It would be just unforgivable," says Strong. "What would go through my mind is what kind of a nurse was that?"
In the California case the director of the facility where Lorraine Bayless died said she would have received CPR if she'd been living in the assisted living facility that's adjacent instead of the independent living facility where she died.
Hleigh@siouxlandnews.com
www.facebook.com/heatherleighKMEG
