Nursing home staff failed to follow end-of-life directives of patient to administer CPR, spurring state's largest fine of year and raising questions about policies regarding elder care.
When the heart and lungs of Resident 11 stopped working, no one at the nursing home Dexter Health Care attempted revival with CPR.
State and federal regulations, however, say CPR should have been attempted. The death led to the largest state fine against a nursing home in Maine in 2013.
Across the nation, there have been dozens of cases recently documented in which nursing home staff failed to give CPR to those who needed and wanted it.
This time it happened in Maine, even though the state statistically performs better than most others.
"It's a serious problem," said Toby Edelman, senior policy attorney with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a national organization based in Willimantic, Conn. To read the entire article click here.