This is horrible, and as bad as it is that the nurse responded this way, if we want to fix it, we need to look at why the rules have been set up this way. She was simply following the rules laid out for her. The lawyer culture in this country is disgraceful and directly responsible for this. We are in desperate need of tort reform.

We look at this as being a horrible response and that we would have acted differently, but we view ourselves being in this situation once in a lifetime. They deal with this on a regular basis and there is sadly a reason why they have set up these rules.

This is/was a very disturbing story. It would seem to me that the insurance carriers and the risks they insure are taking away common sense. This nurse should have saved her life.

As a licensed nurse she not only has a moral/ethical obligation, but a legal one as well. Protocol, IMHO does not trump absolute comman sense. The only part of the story I don't understand is that the family is ok with what took place and perhaps, unbeknownst to us--she may have had a DNR. All in all a sad story. And the eerily way this nurse was so calm and the dispatcher so obviously upset was disgusting. Like most stories, we only know part of it. There are good samaritan laws where you are protected should the outcome not be favorable--Meaning, just do the right thing.

We need to hear from the folks in the nursing home industry on this one. Personally it shocks me. I have problems with 9-1-1, its training, its protocols and its structure. Not enough have changes since I served as counsel and chief of staff to the chair of the NYC Council Committee on Public Safety which then had oversight over Police, Fire, Criminal Justice, the DAs, Corrections, Probation, Alternatives to Incarceration and Youth Detention. A month after I left the Council Speaker broke up the committee separating Police and Fire to separate committee and the response issue got muddled and remains so. The issue remains less the response time of a unit once dispatched; the time to dispatch remains the big issue.

I agree with Cindy on this one. Its my understanding that the nurse had a professional obligation to administer CPR unless the patient had a DNR. Which I wondered about when I heard the story. If so, it would explain the nurse's response and seemingly calm manner. In dealing with nurses when my parents died, I found many medical professionals feel that a DNR is something that is to be highly respected.

My understanding from the "news" (and of course I use that term loosely) is that there was no DNR (plus I would have assumed the nurse would have mentioned it rather than just refusing to cooperate).

I wonder if we know all the facts