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The Life Choice at the Heart of CPR

In news that may ruffle your feathers, we find that even birds are getting CPR.

In one of those off beat internet stories that we find somehow compelled to scan, it was announced that animal CPR had been given to a, a cheetah, a tapir, and a pigeon, but "not," I thought, adding my own twist, "To an unconscious elderly woman in Bakersfield, California."

The story--about an elderly woman, Lorraine Bayless, who died after a nurse at her retirement home refused a 911 dispatcher's pleas to perform CPR-- that has aroused the anger of many, and morbid curiosity in the rest of us, has left us with this question: Put in the nurse's shoes, or even more provocatively, left in our own, what would we do?

I can remember searching for a nursing home for my father. As I was given the tour, I recall passing the staff in the halls, wondering who in an emergency would come to his aid. A novice at choosing a health care facility, I figured intervention wasn't an issue since everyone was dressed in a uniform.

What I didn't understand was that in that setting, the staff is required to give medical treatment. In independent senior living settings, such as the Brookdale Senior Living facility in Bakersfield, where Bayless died, that are more like apartment complexes, there is no such legal requirement.

But is there another requirement in play here--the elephant in the waiting room--adding its weight to the controversy?cpr lorraine bayless

Here is the critical exchange between the 911 dispatcher and nurse at the Brookdale Senior Living facility, as reported in the Washington Post:

"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.

Was she afraid of a wrongful death lawsuit?

Here's what Arthur Caplan, head of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City told ABC News.

"There's never been a successful lawsuit against someone who tried to help using CPR," Caplan said. "Every state, if you make a good, safe attempt to help, will indemnify lawsuits."

The nurse had no need to worry. Lorraine Bayless' family as reported by Bakersfield Californian, is satisfied with her treatment, does not plan to sue, and has expressed that their relative did not want any "Life prolonging intervention."

As reported later, the nurse felt she was following company policy. However, after the national uproar, the company now claims that the nurse did not understand the policy.

In contrast, Jews, since the Torah, have had an easy-to-understand policy about saving a life.

In the book of Kings, the prophet Elisha, by placing his mouth on the mouth of the child who was not breathing, and restoring life to him, exercised this central policy. That action was an expression of a key Jewish value-- Pikuach nefesh-- the obligation to save a life in jeopardy.

The "Obligation applies to both an immediate threat and a less grave danger that has the potential of becoming serious." The concept, derived from the biblical verse (Lev. 19-16) "Do not profit by the blood of your fellow," is interpreted to mean that an individual must do anything in their power to save a life.

The reviving technique, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), is straightforward enough that it can be performed by a layperson with just a little training. But, if anything, this story shows that technique alone is not enough.

When someone stops breathing, someone we might not know, or even like, in a heartbeat, a different policy needs to take over--choose life.

Edmon J. Rodman has written about making his own matzah for JTA, Jewish love music for the Jerusalem Post, yiddisheh legerdemain for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, a Bernie Madoff Halloween mask for the Forward, and what really gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits for the Los Angeles Times. He has edited several Jewish population studies, and is one of the founders of the Movable Minyan, an over twenty-year-old chavura-size, independent congregation. He once designed a pop-up seder plate. In 2011 Rodman received a First Place Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Feature Writing" from the American Jewish Press Association."