Shades of Obamacare.
You´re too old.
Time to die and get out of the way
Amerika needs your money.
We´re not spending money on you.
Your life is expectancy is short - we´re making it shorter.

CPR is only given when there is no pulse or heartbeat. If the caller said, "Don´t let this woman die", the victim was still alive. Giving her CPR could have killed her.

Or she might also have had a DNR in her file, which would be her wish not to be resuscitated.

But doing CPR on an older person, who might be quite frail, would not be proper for someone who is only marginally-trained, which invites lawsuits and further injury, which is probably why the policy is there.

What #2 said. CPR is not indicated or advisable for everyone. That is not a decision for a 911 operator.

How did the 911 operator know the woman was not "breathing enough"?

At 87, I´d be happy for them to let me go.

I understand she had asked to not be resucitated in such an event. I am starting to age ( rapidly, LOL,) and I want quality, not length of life. I have signed DNR papers. I have a widowed friend in her eighties who has to live with a daughter and a son in law she does not get along with. She choked and passed out. Said son in law performed Heimlich on her and she revived. Was she happy? You guess.

Two sequential related articles to think about:

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/how-successful-is-cpr-in-older-patients/

and then:

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/more-on-cpr-for-the-elderly/

The 911 operator had no business "ordering" CPR.

Gently scolding all...what have we become? Any God fearing person would fight for life. God is in control of the outcome. That´s also common sense.

Could this be Obamacare being put into practice?

Whether or not CPR should be directed by a 911 operator (but when you call them they always give you some instructions), I believe it is unconscionable to withhold it, as was done in this case.

#7, Initiating CPR would then seem to be in defiance of God´s wishes.

I read on another site that the woman had a DNR order on file, which she signed herself. I have no idea if that is actually the case, but without it the story stinks to high heaven.
I know quite a few medical types, from CNA´s to MD´s. They would all try to save a life unless it was against the person´s own wishes.

Hmmmm Calling all family members who see a chance to sue them all order or not.
Does Obamacare include data on how to pay law suits on unnecessary deaths?

This was on the tv, they polled relatives of residents there and a VAST majority agreeded with the nurse.

#5, the son-in-law thought enough of the lady to save her life. She might not get along with him, but he did the right thing.

...not really something to get worked up about. 87, "not breathing enough" and she dies at the hospital. She was in the "rare air" and her time had come...

...if you want to get worked up about our futurem then read the stories on the NHS in the Daily Mail...

We are lacking the full story here, without which, it would be difficult to form a valid opinion.
It was, however, an assisted living faclity, with a nurse on duty. Those places advertise the availability of a nurse, 24/7.
It is a strong selling point for paying big bucks to them.

The least they could have done is slap an oxygen mask on her ...

... maybe a CPAP machine, as well.

My mother is 100 years-old. She has a DNR order which says medical personnel are to do absolutely nothing for her.

Article says it was an independent living facility. These normally do not have a registered nurse on staff.

Residents of an independent living facility generally are "spry" enough to be able to handle most functions for themselves. This is a lower level of care than assisted living or nursing home.

To me, the issue is that the place called 911 and then refused to follow the instructions of the 911 operator. Common sense says to follow the 911 operator´s instructions unless those instructions would endanger the life of the person making the call. (For example, if a 911 operator asked a person to go back inside a burning home to pull out a victim.)Clearly CPR did not endanger the person talking on the phone, so I would expect the person calling 911 to follow 911´s instructions until help arrived.

Kind of an odd take, #7. Not sure where it is written that we are required for fight for life rather than leaving it in God´s hands. "Fighting for life" is a misstatement anyway. You don´t "fight" cancer, at least not consciously. That implies that someone who died didn´t "fight."

There´s nothing wrong with allowing yourself to die at that advanced age.

Dittos #10 and 20.

#16 is correct. We do not have the full story. Plus, it´s written by an ABC News reporter so if you were in Vegas betting on it, you´d have to bet that it´s full of lies.

I mean, ABC has spent 6 or 7 years lying about Zero. Why would they not lie about this in order to have a "story"?

"Tell me a story, Daddy." What do you think a "story" is? The Mainstream Media are "story"tellers.

Read the last paragraph, the statement released by the facility. They say they are an independent living community and only call for emergency assistance when their residents are ill. My question would be, why have any nurses on staff then? And since they did have medical personnel on staff but didn´t provide simple emergency assistance that a nurse would give to someone on the street, that is withholding treatment.

The BIG picture is that obamacare is murder on a mass scale as now practiced in other socialist countries. Look up stories on the killings in just 1 British hospital. Over 1,200 killings or as the newspapers are stating .... needless deaths!

Don´t split hairs on this incident as there will be many more and it will be deliberate and malicious and you will find those in "management" positions picking who lives and who dies based on which political party you belong to and how much their bonus will be on money saved. Money divided up among themselves!!

All because of lawyers and Democrats who always block tort reform.

I realize on many things in life, I simply do not get a vote. Having said that, it would be my personal preference and privilege if #4 and #5 would remain with us as long as possible. I have found my disagreements with them instructive. (This sentiment may not, of course, be reciprocally true).

People are missing the point. If nothing is done, the woman will surely die. Now she may die anyway if CPR is given, but she will definitely die if it isn´t. The only moral and responsible thing to do is to give her the CPR. IMO, this nurse deliberately chose to let this woman die and, therefore, is guilty of murder. She should be prosecuted for this, and if the facilty is complicit in this, they likewise should face prosecution.

Remind me not to let my family check me in there!

My physician-wife tells me CPR given to the elderly generally results in broken ribs and, even if the patient revives, the patient will live only a short time longer, a painful, painful, short while longer. It´s why in hospitals they have so-called "slow codes" for such folks.

Maybe she ran out of money and no Good Samaritan was willing to help.

Many patients and their relatives do not understand the meaning of DNR. They think it means at the worse case scenario at the very end, when in truth if the patient faints, there will be no help.

I was asked to sign one for a parent and I refused saying I didn´t bring them here to be warehoused until they die. They are only here because they want to be near other relatives.

Some posters say they read elsewhere she had a DNR. I read elsewhere that she did not have a DNR. That´s all beside the point as this was not a nursing facility but independent living. In such a place, you don´t have Doctor´s order of DNR at request of person or family. There´s no real medical record. People may be assisted with their meds as far as them being handed to the person, and that´s what the RN comes in to oversee the records on. The RN doesn´t nurse the folks, assistance is by aides.

I doubt the nurse was an actual RN or LVN, not that it really matters. I believe her when she says it is company policy not to perform CPR. They also don´t help you up when you fall, they call 911.

Since this is the way it´s going, maybe one of the activity clubs at the senior living places should be a CPR club, what the heck.

#10, if that is true, then why should we have doctors, medical advances and emergency medical personnel?? Wouldn´t it be left in God´s hands only and to God´s will if we all just were Christian Scientists? No, I don´t agree with #10.
Anyway, it seems that the issue is that she had a DNR on file. So, the nurse was right not to go against it. But then I wonder, why did 911 get called then? Was it done before the DNR was known to exist? Something doesn´t add up.

My dear little Grandmother was 79 years old when a piece of juicy pork from Dad´s birthday luau somehow got tangled up in her dentures and before she was able to properly chew it, it had slid down into her throat. I had just completed classes in CPR and the Heimlich (for my job) - normally would not have followed her into the powder room, respecting her privacy but recalled from the training to discern possible choking or heart attack - she was standing there, desperately choking and I stepped up and did the Heimlich and that thing popped out like an Olympic diver out of a cannon - then plopped into the potty. It was part of the training to be careful about older ribs. Dear darling had another twenty years, made it to almost 100 by three weeks.

Its obvious to me that the nursing home and all their employees are rabid demonrats who support euthansia.

I was visiting my 97 year old aunt at our areas "best" nursing home when a patient across the hall fell out of bed. I told the nurse in the hall and she said "she didn´t fall far" and ignored her. My aunt died covered with bruises, broken hip, unable to speak or was afraid to. Now this is a woman who hadn´t walked for a year, was in a bed she couldn´t have gotten out of if she were able to walk. When she died, her diamond wedding ring was missing. We were told "none of this happened here". By the way, her room mate died the exact same way the month before. If I had been the family member in charge I would have demanded an investigation. It´s still going on.

Hmmm, Murder?

Is this a rehash of an old story or deja vu all over again ?