I miss George Burns. Not for his comedy -- I always found it a bit outdated, which, considering he was born in the nineteenth century isn't much of a surprise -- but because he was the go-to guy for all jokes that required a really old person. We need that old guy now. We don't have anybody. Well, I guess Joan Rivers is kinda playing that role these days, but, I dunno, she just doesn't work as well as George did.
George Burns died just a few months after his 100th birthday in 1996 (and just a few months prior to my high school graduation). His real name was Nathan Birnbaum. George Burns was a stage name he adopted in the '20s. It says in Wikipedia he got the name from the two unrelated baseball stars of the time named George Burns. Being a baseball history buff (i.e., a nerd) I had heard of both the big league George Burnses before, but never though they were connected to the showbiz George Burns. I just chalked it up to a same-name coincidence -- like the '80s infielder named Jim Morrison -- but, turns out, it's not.
Anyway, the purpose of this post isn't to talk about George Burns. I wanted to talk about this trending story of the independent living home in California that refused to administer CPR to an 87 year-old woman who collapsed and subsequently died, because it's not their policy. A nurse at the home called 911, and the EMS operator told her to give the old woman CPR, but she refused. EMTs arrived later but were unable to revive the woman. The 911 call has been making the rounds, it's pretty hard to listen to, and a lot of people are understandably outraged.
I say "understandably" because I understand the outrage, but I don't feel it. Am I the only one who thinks it's not that awful to follow a policy that says you don't resuscitate? It sounds pretty terrible to us, but if you're housing really old people, they are going to have medical emergencies, and they are going to die. You need to have logistical policies in place to deal with this unsavory truth. If the residents (or their families) knowingly agree to these policies, then why the outrage? To quote the article quoting a doctor:
"These are like apartments for seniors. You're basically living on your own. They may have some services provided by basic nursing staff, but it's not their responsibility to care for the individual," said Dr. Susan Leonard, a geriatrics expert at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Now, you can argue this isn't how people should operate -- it's inhuman to let somebody die in this manner. To quote another quote from the article:
Independent living facilities "should not have a policy that says you can stand there and watch somebody die," said Pat McGinnis, founder of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, a consumer advocacy group. "How a nurse can do that is beyond comprehension."
But it's not beyond comprehension. And is watching somebody die necessarily a bad thing? If nobody is watching you die it means you die alone. Is that preferable? Sure it is if you're going to die with somebody watching at 29, and die alone at 99, but at 87? I don't know. Not to be insensitive, but how much life did this woman who just collapsed have in her? I mean, thinking back on my own family experience, I visited my grandma about a week before she passed, and when I saw her she was done. Not complete senile, not completely immobile, not hooked up to a bunch of tubes -- but just done, done with life. Now, I didn't actually watch her collapse and expire, but if I had, and I didn't try to "save" her, would it have been a tragedy? My aunt lived with my grandma before she passed; she (my aunt) knew that one of these mornings she (my grandma) wasn't going wake up and nothing was really being done to prevent it. This is pretty much tantamount to watching somebody die, and it's not a bad thing.
I know the situation with my grandma isn't exactly the same thing as the woman in the home. The woman in the home didn't have her family around, and the nurse seemed much more interested in her own ass than in assisting a dying woman. I'm not saying she's a good person who did a noble thing, and it's probably not what I would have done, I just don't get the national outrage is all.
Maybe I'm missing something and being a callous jerk, maybe this woman was going to live another happy/healthy decade if resuscitated (although at 87, having just collapsed, I doubt it), or maybe we, as a society, don't make a whole lot of sense when it comes to death. And maybe this is completely understandable -- death is pretty fucking weird when you think about it.
Until next time...
George Burns died just a few months after his 100th birthday in 1996 (and just a few months prior to my high school graduation). His real name was Nathan Birnbaum. George Burns was a stage name he adopted in the '20s. It says in Wikipedia he got the name from the two unrelated baseball stars of the time named George Burns. Being a baseball history buff (i.e., a nerd) I had heard of both the big league George Burnses before, but never though they were connected to the showbiz George Burns. I just chalked it up to a same-name coincidence -- like the '80s infielder named Jim Morrison -- but, turns out, it's not.
Anyway, the purpose of this post isn't to talk about George Burns. I wanted to talk about this trending story of the independent living home in California that refused to administer CPR to an 87 year-old woman who collapsed and subsequently died, because it's not their policy. A nurse at the home called 911, and the EMS operator told her to give the old woman CPR, but she refused. EMTs arrived later but were unable to revive the woman. The 911 call has been making the rounds, it's pretty hard to listen to, and a lot of people are understandably outraged.
"These are like apartments for seniors. You're basically living on your own. They may have some services provided by basic nursing staff, but it's not their responsibility to care for the individual," said Dr. Susan Leonard, a geriatrics expert at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Now, you can argue this isn't how people should operate -- it's inhuman to let somebody die in this manner. To quote another quote from the article:
Independent living facilities "should not have a policy that says you can stand there and watch somebody die," said Pat McGinnis, founder of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, a consumer advocacy group. "How a nurse can do that is beyond comprehension."
But it's not beyond comprehension. And is watching somebody die necessarily a bad thing? If nobody is watching you die it means you die alone. Is that preferable? Sure it is if you're going to die with somebody watching at 29, and die alone at 99, but at 87? I don't know. Not to be insensitive, but how much life did this woman who just collapsed have in her? I mean, thinking back on my own family experience, I visited my grandma about a week before she passed, and when I saw her she was done. Not complete senile, not completely immobile, not hooked up to a bunch of tubes -- but just done, done with life. Now, I didn't actually watch her collapse and expire, but if I had, and I didn't try to "save" her, would it have been a tragedy? My aunt lived with my grandma before she passed; she (my aunt) knew that one of these mornings she (my grandma) wasn't going wake up and nothing was really being done to prevent it. This is pretty much tantamount to watching somebody die, and it's not a bad thing.
I know the situation with my grandma isn't exactly the same thing as the woman in the home. The woman in the home didn't have her family around, and the nurse seemed much more interested in her own ass than in assisting a dying woman. I'm not saying she's a good person who did a noble thing, and it's probably not what I would have done, I just don't get the national outrage is all.
Maybe I'm missing something and being a callous jerk, maybe this woman was going to live another happy/healthy decade if resuscitated (although at 87, having just collapsed, I doubt it), or maybe we, as a society, don't make a whole lot of sense when it comes to death. And maybe this is completely understandable -- death is pretty fucking weird when you think about it.
Until next time...
I wouldn't want CPR at 87. When done properly it breaks ribs and then, what? I would be recovering from broken ribs at 87? No thank you. I think if you go into cardiac or respiratory distress at 87, that's what is known as natural causes. Not a tragedy. It's weird to me the nurse called 911 though. That indicates the resident did not have a DNR on record. If that's true, it's disturbing someone trained would call for help, but refuse to administer it herself. That policy needs some looking into.
ReplyDeleteI agree the policy doesn't make much sense, but in our litigious society a lot of things don't make sense. I'm guessing unless a patient is DNR, the staff goes into CYA and calls 911.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the policy needs work, maybe not. It's hard to judge from so far away.
ReplyDeleteI heard a good story on the differences between medical professionals view death and the way other people view death, specifically resuscitation. When asked for things like CPR, respirators, and the like 90% (or so) of lay people say they want them. When doctors are asked its the opposite. 90% refuse. Because doctors see the aftermath and the true affects such technology has on the body and on families. It usually is not pretty.
Like K said. CPR breaks ribs and can cause other damage. It also has something like a 5% effective value for saving life. It might prevent immediate death but usually the patient dies later or has some debilitating side effect that greatly diminishes their quality of life.
Our culture views death strangely. We are all scared of it, when in reality it can be a welcome release for many. I say let the family duke it out with the nursing home if they want. Everyone else should keep their noses out of it.
Here's the story. It's from radiolab and is quite interesting. I suggest you give it a listen.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2013/jan/15/bitter-end/
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. I'll check it out.
ReplyDelete