Nursing Home Refuses To Perform CPR As 911 Operator Pleads

While this is not a situation that is caused by Obama-Care's death panels, it is an example of the callous way our health industry is already beginning to look at the elderly in America.  Now that Obama-Care is the law of the land, it is but a matter of time before the government orders all healthcare workers to deny CPR to any person over a certain age who is dieing.

Don't tell me this is just an isolated incident that will not be repeated in America, because financial constraints on our future budgets commands it to be so.  In a country of citizens that care more about their present entertainment then they do about their future well being, we have voters beginning to approve "Right to Die" legislation. Interestingly, those who are overwhelmingly voting against such laws, are the ones who are closest to death. Like it or not, it's  a sign of things to come in America.


Like Obama does today, the government will one day make a case to euthanize the elderly who are a drain on the system, and like today the younger generation will agree. Who will stand for the elderly then, those who are charged with taking care of them? I think not.  After all, we can see from the example in 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless's case, no one was willing to go against the policy to perform CPR.

A 911 dispatcher pleaded with a nurse at a Bakersfield, Calif., senior living facility to save the life of an elderly woman by giving her CPR, but the nurse said policy did not allow her to, according to a newly released audiotape of the call.

"Is there anybody there that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?" the dispatcher asked in a recording of the 911 call released by the Bakersfield Fire Department. "Not at this time," the nurse said.

The incident unfolded on Tuesday when 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless collapsed at Glenwood Gardens, a senior living facility in Bakersfield.

In the seven-minute, 16-second recording, the nurse told the dispatcher it was against the facility's policy for employees to perform CPR on residents.

With every passing second, Bayless' chances of survival were diminishing. The dispatcher's tone turned desperate.

"Anybody there can do CPR. Give them the phone please. I understand if your facility is not willing to do that. Give the phone to that passerby," the dispatcher said. "This woman is not breathing enough. She is going to die if we don't get this started."

After several minutes, an ambulance arrived and took Bayless to Mercy Southwest Hospital, where she died.

The statement also said a "thorough internal review of the matter'' would be conducted.

A call to the facility by The Associated Press seeking more information on the incident was not immediately returned.

Bayless' daughter told a reporter for KGET, the NBC affiliate in Bakersfield, that she was also a nurse and was satisfied with the care her mother received.