"Sorry, Ma'am. I'm not authorized to give a shit without permission..."

[navkat]

Or: "The type of shit that brings navkat back to PD.com"

http://www.kget.com/news/local/story/Dramatic-911-tape-reveals-dispatcher-s-fight-to/g2pqsOnJJUGDHFDtxoK04Q.cspx

Bayless was a resident at Glenwood Gardens' independent living facility, an area adjacent to, but separate from, Glenwood's skilled nursing facility and assisted living facility.

She collapsed in the facility's dining room at about 11:07 a.m. Tuesday.

Someone called 9-1-1, and Bakersfield Fire Dispatcher Tracey Halvorson got the call. Glenwood Gardens personnel handed the phone to a nurse who identified herself as Colleen.

During a 7-minute, 16-second call, Halvorson reasoned, cajoled and at times begged the nurse to start CPR in an attempt to save the woman.

The nurse said Glenwood Gardens policy prohibited her attempting CPR. The dispatcher assured the nurse Glenwood couldn't be sued if anything went wrong with CPR. The lcoal emegency medical system "Takes the liability for this call," the dispatcher said.

"I understand if your boss is telling you you can't do it," the dispatcher said. "But ... as a human being ... you know ... is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?"

"Not at this time," the nurse answered.

I'm having a difficult time discerning Real Life (tm) from one of Roger's stories.

[Eater of Clowns]

In a moral world, that dispatcher would be fired for her gross overstep.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Or: "The type of shit that brings navkat back to PD.com"

http://www.kget.com/news/local/story/Dramatic-911-tape-reveals-dispatcher-s-fight-to/g2pqsOnJJUGDHFDtxoK04Q.cspx

Bayless was a resident at Glenwood Gardens' independent living facility, an area adjacent to, but separate from, Glenwood's skilled nursing facility and assisted living facility.

She collapsed in the facility's dining room at about 11:07 a.m. Tuesday.

Someone called 9-1-1, and Bakersfield Fire Dispatcher Tracey Halvorson got the call. Glenwood Gardens personnel handed the phone to a nurse who identified herself as Colleen.

During a 7-minute, 16-second call, Halvorson reasoned, cajoled and at times begged the nurse to start CPR in an attempt to save the woman.

The nurse said Glenwood Gardens policy prohibited her attempting CPR. The dispatcher assured the nurse Glenwood couldn't be sued if anything went wrong with CPR. The lcoal emegency medical system "Takes the liability for this call," the dispatcher said.

"I understand if your boss is telling you you can't do it," the dispatcher said. "But ... as a human being ... you know ... is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?"

"Not at this time," the nurse answered.

I'm having a difficult time discerning Real Life (tm) from one of Roger's stories.

In my stories, really bad things happen to bad people.

In real life, what can you do about someone who doesn't give a shit?  Laws requiring people lend assistance have already been struck down as unconstitutional.

[Bruno]

Surely we can at least TAX people for not giving a shit.


Right?

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

That is fucking crazy.

[Cain]

The administrator of Bakersfield's Glenwood Gardens confirmed Friday the retirement facility has a policy: Employees do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation on residents of Glenwood's independent living facility. That's why a nurse refused the pleas of a Bakersfield Fire Department dispatcher to begin CPR on a Glenwood resident who collapsed Tuesday morning.

The 87-year-old woman died. Reports identify her at Lorraine Bayless and confirm she did not have a do-not-resuscitate order. Her daughter told 17News she is satisfied with Glenwood's handling of the situation.

I wondered about the bit I bolded myself.

I can certainly understand being fearful of getting sued for attempting resuscitation, but when the caller assures no legal liability will result...yeah, I'm at a loss.  One of my previous jobs involved some degree of business with a retirement home, so I can't say I'm entirely surprised by this sort of shit.  Good retirement homes are hard to find, and a large number of them are nothing more than fucking scams, where they're only going to keep you alive so long as it pays well.  They'll pass people onto the hospitals as soon as they become too much to handle, which tends to end up in being juggled back and forth between the home and the hospital for several weeks before their death.

[navkat]

Surely we can at least TAX people for not giving a shit.


Right?

Socialist.

[navkat]

The administrator of Bakersfield's Glenwood Gardens confirmed Friday the retirement facility has a policy: Employees do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation on residents of Glenwood's independent living facility. That's why a nurse refused the pleas of a Bakersfield Fire Department dispatcher to begin CPR on a Glenwood resident who collapsed Tuesday morning.

The 87-year-old woman died. Reports identify her at Lorraine Bayless and confirm she did not have a do-not-resuscitate order. Her daughter told 17News she is satisfied with Glenwood's handling of the situation.

I wondered about the bit I bolded myself.

I can certainly understand being fearful of getting sued for attempting resuscitation, but when the caller assures no legal liability will result...yeah, I'm at a loss.  One of my previous jobs involved some degree of business with a retirement home, so I can't say I'm entirely surprised by this sort of shit.  Good retirement homes are hard to find, and a large number of them are nothing more than fucking scams, where they're only going to keep you alive so long as it pays well.  They'll pass people onto the hospitals as soon as they become too much to handle, which tends to end up in being juggled back and forth between the home and the hospital for several weeks before their death.

Same here. All that cutting-edge, competitive, free-market healthcare we have doesn't seem to make a lick of difference when it comes to trying to get the nurse to wipe the McRib sauce off her fingers, get her ass out from behind the nurse's station desk and come explain why it's 3 o'clock and the diabetic patient we're taking to the hospital due to a rampant, bleeding  UTI hasn't had a blood glucose reading since breakfast.

[Junkenstein]

I must ask you all to take a moment and remember this:

Regardless of profession, you will encounter oxygen thieves daily.

Please extend doctors/nurses/other carers the same courtesy as everyone else and consider the idea they may just be awful people.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I must ask you all to take a moment and remember this:

Regardless of profession, you will encounter oxygen thieves daily.

Please extend doctors/nurses/other carers the same courtesy as everyone else and consider the idea they may just be awful people.

I LOVE the word "carer" in this context.   

[navkat]

Would "care provider" raise the cranial pH some?

[Cain]

Hah, some of the most mean-spirited people I've had the misfortune to know had the job title of "care assistants".  They gave so little fucks they probably wouldn't even bother to piss on someone if they were on fire.

[navkat]

Nursing homes are by far, the WORST. I actually went to pick up a patient once who was non-ambulatory and needed to be lifted onto our stretcher. It's expected that the transferring staff (and whoever else is on-scene) aids with the lift. After shoving her nose in the clipboard for several minutes and avoiding eye-contact, my partner had to ASK her to assist with the lift since there were two of us, 250lbs of the patient and we were both small-framed females. This nurse had the audacity to tell us that she couldn't help because the facility was having a problem with MRSA and patient contact was to be avoided.

Excuse me, whaat? My first instinct was to grab a pair of gloves and hand them to her because I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that she was refusing. Right, lady. You can't touch the patient because you're a nurse but it's okay for us to sustain a back-injury cause we're just "techs," right?

And she was obviously full of shit about it being a policy because she called someone else on-site to help. SHE just didn't want to do it.

You've got to ask yourself: If there are nurses working FT at these facilities who don't want to TOUCH a patient, what quality of care could the patients on her rotation possibly be receiving?

[Cain]

In the UK, we have care homes, which are for people who don't need round the clock medical care (in theory) and nursing homes, for people who do (in theory).

In practice, people are basically kept in the care homes until the point where they die from neglect, usually costing them and their families several thousand pounds a month for the "experience".

The one in my local town was notorious for this.  The facility was never designed as a care home, the staff were undertrained, the shifts were understaffed, the management were incompetent.  The building stank of piss and several "residents" were confined to their beds for the majority of the day and only taken down for meals and the occasional bath.  Given it was meant to be a care home, a lot of the residents were clearly suffering from dementia, depression or, in one case, probable psychosis.

All this for £3000 a month. Also had an "excellent" rating from the state inspectors.

[Junkenstein]

For what it's worth I can anecdotally back up Cain's experience in 4/5 large towns/cities in Scotland and England.

I now consider the word "Hospice" synonymous with "Fucked". The laziest google will give you a multitude of tales from across the UK about various "care homes" for the elderly or mentally infirm that will make you loathe your fellow man a little more. I would posit that if it's happening this widely here, it's not just the UK.