911 call: 'They're refusing CPR. They're gonna let her die'
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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — An elderly woman died last Tuesday after a nurse at her Bakersfield retirement home refused to give her CPR.
According to the recorded 911 call, a staff nurse called to report that an 87-year-old woman living at Glenwood Gardens retirement home had collapsed in the dining room with breathing problems.
Listen to the full, uncut 911 call >>
The nurse told the 911 dispatch operator, Tracey Halvorson, that the elderly woman, Lorraine Bayless, was only taking about one breath every 15 seconds.
During the call, the nurse refused Halvorson's clear directions to perform CPR, saying that the retirement home doesn't allow such procedures on its residents.
"Can anyone there do CPR? Give them the phone please … I understand if your facility is not willing," Halvorson said during the recorded call. "But give the phone to the stranger. This woman is not breathing enough. She is going to die if we don't get this started."
"I understand," the nurse replied. "I am a nurse, but I can not have our other senior citizens who don't know CPR (interrupted)."
The Kern County Fire Department confirmed the name of the dispatcher. Eyewitness News obtained a Bakersfield Fire Department incident report with Bayless' name. Eyewitness News has not been given the name of the Glenwood Gardens nurse.
The operator on the 911 call was a long-time Kern County Fire Department dispatcher.
"She followed the protocols right up to the point where she could no longer follow protocols, because there was nowhere to go," Deputy Chief Michael Miller told Eyewitness News on Monday.
The city fire department incident report also states that emergency workers found no do-not-resuscitate order, or DNR, for Bayless.
Almost 10 minutes after the call was placed, an ambulance arrived at Glenwood Gardens. Paramedics took Bayless to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
Monday, police Sgt. Jason Matson said officers are investigating the situation but haven't found any evidence of criminal misconduct or criminal culpability in their preliminary investigation.
The AP reported that Glenwood Gardens' executive director Jeffrey Toomer defended the nurse.
"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," Toomer said in a written statement, according to the AP. "That is the protocol we followed."
Glenwood Gardens has three different types of facilities at the site. There's independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing. Skilled nursing is under the oversight of the state Department of Licensing and Certification. Assisted living falls under the state Office of Social Services, according to spokesman Michael Weston. He said no office has jurisdiction over independent living facilities for seniors.
The only written state Toomer provided to Eyewitness News was: "We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the individual’s family on the passing of their loved one. We are currently conducting a thorough review of this matter."
Deputy fire chief Miller said he understands why there are so many questions about the incident.
"I don't think anybody out there doesn't have some emotional response to this call," he said. "It's frustrating."
This is a tragic situation, one that happens all too often in the Long Term Care industry. Â I'm an attorney who represents families and elders in suits against facilities to hold them accountable when they do wrong, and when they harm or kill residents. Â I can tell you that there are good and bad a facilities out there, and other than this one incident I don't know anything about this particular facility. Â Clearly they need to rethink their policies. Â They were charged with her care, and to have a nurse there and not have her do CPR for a resident who is not DNR and who so clearly needs it is just really BEYOND comprehension. Â
While i'm a lawyer, and there is CLEARLY a case here, and not a frivolous one, I'm primarily struck by the sheer inhumanity of this situation. Â My thoughts and prayers go out to Ms. Bayless and her family, and frankly to this nurse who was between a rock (her job) and a hard place (saving the life of someone in need, who she had the ability to save). Â While it may seem easy to judge her (even hard not to), i try not to be too quick to judge her (and other caregivers working for the Long Term Care industry) because i don't know her situation, but what i do know is that the system at this facility failed. Â What a tragedy. I can only imagine she's feeling like she committed a negligent homicide herself and regretting it. Â The nurse probably needs some serious counseling at this point. Â Too often nurses and aids are put in untenable situations where they are doing or witnessing inhumane things, but they need the job, have to put food on the table for the family, etc. Â I'm not justifying it (even with their job or pay check at stake they need to know right from wrong), but just saying they too are victims of this profit driven Long Term Care industry. Â The primary victims are our elders and their families, the secondary victims are the regular people working there trying to scrape by, while the corporation skims major profits off the top. Â
What a tragedy. Â Lets not let Ms. Bayless have died in vain. Â Speak up and make sure this facility changes it's policies and is held accountable for what it did to this woman and her family.
Who called the news about this in the first place?Â
So to everyone who said she had a DNR on file, turns out, no, she didn;t, just out from the Bakersfield officials. The facility has a DNY policy, but this woman had NO DNR on file. Change anything for you? AS much as i am against new laws of any type, we need a law here to make it illegal for any business to have policies that prevent staff or passerby's from doing CPR. If the woman had DNR in palce, fine, make an exception for the person;s wishes, but otherwise this practice should be illegal.
Negligent homicide.
If you love your relatives, you'll get them out of that facility.
'!
Well She had a DNR order on file, that means the woman who passed away sign when she was in good mental health or someone she appointed to make that decision for her signed the  papers.  These DNR orders state, if I am  incapacitated in any way, do not do things to me that will bring me back to life or  cause me to be on a ventilator,  or  in a vegetative state if I should live through this.  We have to come to terms with our own  wishes for end of life care and make those wished known to people.  I would dare say that if this woman had CPR performed on her and lived the facility would have incurred a lawsuit like no other either from the woman or her family.   I stand by the nurse.  This was the ladies wishes.  The RN is a trained person to render medical care, the  911 operator 9 times out of 10 is a lay person who  was trained to follow instructions on a computer and has never walked in the shoes of a nurse.  Not that I am disrespecting 911 operators, they do good work, stressful work for low pay, but there is  a difference.  The RN called 911, I am sure, because you can't leave a collapsed woman on the ground, especially if she is breathing, this is a assisted living facility where the residents  must be able to take care of themselves for the most part.  So the woman being being unconscious needed to go to a hospital or to a different level of care is she should continue to live in this state.  She no longer fit criteria for Assisted living.  That  would be determined once she went to a hospital ER and they got people involved to make that decision.Â
@Newsdiscussions The problem is that the nurse did NOT know if there was a NDR. Negligent homicide.
@Newsdiscussions there was NO dnr, meaning she wanted to be brought back. The nurse was considered a first responder. Why have them certified in CPR if they arent going to use it? Also, this goes against the code of a nurse!
@bakersfieldnow Either way, they've gotten $5 000 000 worth of free advertising. All of it BAD!!!
In 2009 CA passed a law which gives legal protection against civil lawsuits for good samaritans. The excuse the facility is giving is B.S.
Marxifornia is heavens on earth to the tort "industry", the result of electing politicians from political parties that give no respect to human life at the gestation and senescent stages. Those amoral, venal politicians then pass laws that favor tort lawyers, for these latter-ones are heavy political-donors to the former. And that entente between elected-politicians and political donors is not restricted only to tort lawyers, but is rampant among elected politicians and bribers in all walks of life; see the ongoing case --for example-- of Robert Menendez, the Democrat US senator, who has introduced laws that benefit his political donors.
@Maria-Erlinda Martinez Yeah, it's not like Republicans have ever introduced laws that benefited their political donors. Oh wait. Halliburton and all their no bid contracts by their former CEO Dick Cheney.
good comparison dummy!  We know who your dumbass voted for!
In that type of facility they are still required to call 911 if they are not on hospice. Now if the resident did have a DNR then that should have been told to the 911 operator. In these types of communities they are so many restrictions and limitations set by the State of California. Before judgment is passed find out the whole story. There are a whole lot of assumptions with very little information. We are only hearing very minimal info. We only heard about 15 seconds on a 7 minute call.@Mrs.momThe nurse made no indication she knew if there was a DNR. It's an irrelevant issue.
@anon99percenter @bakersfieldnow gross negligence http://t.co/Z1okfOKPx8
@Mz_PsychosisÂ
Unfortunately for the senior segment of the popluation, lawyers are not interested in taking on a case (justified or not) as they are not compensated. The Tort Reform laws in CA, TX, have stripped the seventh amendment right to trial for this segment of the population. Sad but true.  The facility is protected. The nurse can have a complaint filed with the CA Board of Nursing. They might possibly find against her with a reprimand, but the facility is exempt.
This should come as no surprise. The level of care for our most vulnerable is horrific. In both Texas and CA. Tort reform laws, which we passed on the primise of eliminating "frivolous" lawsuits, were actually successfully designed to eliminate all lawsuits. So what does that mean? It means a facility who no longer has to fear accountability will no longer behave with a moral conscience. For them (the facilities) this is about MONEY. Beware citizen! You are expendable, your parent is expendable, your children are expendable. The sad thing is We the People, actually vote these laws in.Â
@anon99percenter @bakersfieldnow appalling to me that just watched this woman die. They need to redesign their procedures seems depraved 2me
.@anon99percenter @bakersfieldnow #WereFucked insurance/legal reasons given for not administering CPR???
@CyMadD0x @anon99percenter @bakersfieldnow wtf?! bs! corporate america worrying about $ from lawsuits and not people or quality of life.
perhaps, by procedure they must. but they themselves do not have a contractual obligation to help, due to either DNR or other pre arranged agreement the resident signs when the enter the facility. Sort of like fireman letting a house burn, when the owner doesn't "pay" for the service. Â
Did the lady have a DNR on file? If she did, the nurse was carrying out the wishes of the lady who died.
@J Roger Evans The nurse would not have known. That information is kept by administrators. Not a relevant point.
Use your brain,  @J Roger Evans . If she had a DNR, they would NOT have called 911.
why was 911 called???  if no one is able to follow instructions or if there are signed documents stating no resusitation....why was 911 called????  better than that, why is this being reported??? sounds like staff training is in order....
@kathleencaron - That's sad.
@EvaPScott :-( Poor Morgan.
This has been all over the national news the past couple of days, and in the local media for the past 5 days. And KBAK is just now reporting it? So typical!