A California nursing home is facing scrutiny after an elderly woman died when staff failed to do CPR. 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless collapsed in a dining room at Glenwood Gardens.
A staff member called 9.1.1. The dispatcher tried to give the caller instructions on how to do CPR. But that person passed the phone to a nurse at the facility. Take a listen to the dispatcher pleading with the nurse.
"If you can't do it, hand it to the passerby and I'll have her do it. Or if you've got any sitting citizens there, I'll have them do it.
"No. No."
"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, then, that stranger. This woman is not breathing enough. She's going to die if we don't get this started. Do you understand?"
"I understand."
The nurse was unable to find someone. Bayless died at the hospital.
