Marvin Jacobs, Army veteran, dies after nurse fails to clear his airway
Army veteran Marvin Jacobs signaled to the nursing home staff that he was having difficulties breathing. Jacobs pointed to his neck indicating that he could not breathe. He had a tracheostomy that resulted in the occasional need for a suctioning machine to unclog his airway. The nurse that responded to this emergency did not utilize the suctioning machine. She took his vitals instead, despite his showing signs of emergency distress, to include having a face that turned purple and then blue.
From the Iowa Capital Dispatch:
When the nurse entered the room, Jacobs was pale, but soon turned purple and then blue, the aide later reported. The nurse took his vital signs and told the aide Jacobs was having a heart attack. The aide explained to the nurse that Jacobs had been signaling he couldn’t breathe, at which point the nurse said, “Just a minute,” and left the room. The suctioning machine sat idle on Jacobs’ nearby dresser.
The nurse later told inspectors the “staff wanted me to suction him (and) I told the staff no. I was told that I would not have to do anything with the tracheostomy.” The nurse said she first left the room to get supplies so she could check Jacobs’ blood pressure, pulse and oxygen levels and that when she returned, he was clammy and had an irregular pulse.
“I told the staff that I needed to go back to the nurses’ station and find out if the resident was a full code or DNR,” the nurse told inspectors, referring to do-not-resuscitate orders that some residents have in place.
She told inspectors that while she was checking on that, one of the aides approached her and said she was needed right away in Jacobs’ room. “I went back into his room and he had no blood pressure, no pulse, and no respirations. I pronounced him deceased,” she told inspectors.
She acknowledged her fellow workers had each told her Jacobs needed his airway suctioned and that he had been pointing to his neck and mouthing that he couldn’t breathe. She said that despite her colleagues’ comments, it never occurred to her to suction Jacobs’ airway.
The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals fined Fonda Specialty Care $10,000 for the death, then reduced that penalty 35%, to $6,500, due to the lack of an appeal in the case.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch has the article here.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Society, Veterans in the news
She needs to lose her license. Even someone with basic CPR/First Aid quals could have saved his life.
Agreed! an EMT with just 6 months of training would know what needed to be done, and would lose their certification if they behaved as this nurse did.
This is way beyond incompetence, it is criminal, and should be handled as such
My grandfather had a trache as a result of throat cancer. My sister, ( a nurse) taught my mother how to use the suction machine we had at home. And later when I was home on leave she taught me and my younger sister as well. It wasn’t difficult or time consuming to teach/learn.
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Fonda Speciality Care? A Cub Scout could have! GDit!
I can see why they left her name off. What do they call that? A depraved indifference to human life?
She’ll have a great career at the VA.
She will be a good nurse preceptor there.
“See him turning blue? That is when you check to see if he is a DNR, grab some coffee, maybe a pastry and come back in about 20.”
I’m pretty sure that if you sign a DNR you don’t want to choke to death. Ironic that Fonda is the name of the hospital group. Sad.
“I pronounced him deceased,” she told inspectors”
Since when does a nurse have that authority?
Does that not require an MD?
I was wondering that as well. I’d guess that with a signed DNR she might…
Looking at the article, I see the deceased Vet is white.. wonder if that factored into the nurses decision…
Course not, that’d be racist…
If anyone finds me in a condition that I can not clear my own airway from a tracheostomy, call this bitch… she has the cure I am looking for.
Back in the 50’s my Cub Scout manual had instructions on
how to treat everything from snake bites to choking.
Even had a drawing of how to slice open someones throat
with a pocket knife. I’ll bet the Brownies had even more
detailed intructions but this bitch missed that class.
LOL, ya but if I get into that condition I will gladly pay her to work the next shift.
Now that Nurse Ratched died where are we to turn for that kind of loving care?
I won’t be able to find The Chief when he is needed either.
There’s no shortage of people that want to kill you when that time comes. 😜
Awww… that may be the sweetest thing you have ever said to me. 😘
Um…asking for a friend.
A number of states, including Iowa, allow an RN to declare death. Different states have different rules and scope of practice for the various medical professionals.
She’s probably a CNA because she took the course to get a job and dislikes how hard it all is on her nails. Who you don’t want in nursing.
I have a brother-in-law who was a county coroner. He was a damn good EMT/Paramedic (ran the county rescue/ambulance service) but no doctor.
Coroner’s also don’t often declare death either. Mostly they do the Death Certificate paperwork. In some states they also serve as a check on power of the Sheriff.
Entitled, selfish dipsh*t– “F*ck you, I’m on my coffee break!”
Nope. Depends on state statute. Some states allow physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, non-physician coroners, and paramedics to pronounce death. They can’t determine cause or manner of death, but they can say, “Yup. He be daid…”
So they were found negligent and fined $10k but had their fine reduced to $6.5k because they didn’t appeal it. WTF?
She doesn’t lift a finger to clear his obstruction, just goes through the motions checking his virals, then goes out of her way to find out if he has DNR so she can “declare” he’s dead and do nothing.
“…due to the lack of an appeal in the case.” Welp, kinda hard to appeal your case when you’re dead.
Was already pissed off and then read the linky. Pissed me off even more. I say get the rest of the residents out of that place, put the staff and owners in there and call in an airstrike.
“call in an airstrike.” I tell you now, believe me later – Willie Peter will make all of them complete believers..
There are few cures so sweet
as our friend Willie Pete.
I’m thinking “Throat punch that so-called nurse.”
I am 100% convinced that she intentionally let this man die.
That said, having been observer to the care my grandmothers received (one at-home with my mother, an RN; the other at a “care facility” that didn’t), then participant in the care of our father in his last years, my sainted mother-in-law in her last years, and now my brother for nearly nine years this is one thing I emphasize to anyone with a loved one in need of long-term medical care:
Learn how to be a patient advocate for them.
And when the nurse, above, falls in a back alley one dark night, try not to gloat too much.
Roses are red, violets are black – this nurse would look great with a knife in her back..
This is way more common than anyone would think. Nursing home in the city I worked had a patient start choking in the cafeteria. The guy had a DNR order, which has nothing whatsoever to do with prohibiting the Heimlich. They refused to render aid, citing the DNR. They were kind enough to wheel him out of the cafeteria so he didn’t “make a scene.”
When they talk about euthanasia, this is the kind of world we can expect.
In Canada they are pushing for euthanasia for children without parental consent or notification.
We are staring evil in the face.
I can’t believe there’s a world where responsible adults think such a thing is a good idea. I never thought we’d be seeing politicians advocate for chemical castration of children and killing them when that inevitably doesn’t bring them the happiness they seek.
There is a reason that “nurse” worked in a nursing home and not a real hospital.
I’ve got one almost as good, but nobody died. Sort of.
This is my town. The place is a converted motel, but done very well, with all the modern hospital gear and resources on hand, yet….
https://calcoastnews.com/2023/03/employee-flees-senior-care-facility-fears-it-is-haunted/
Perhaps karma will pay her a visit someday when she least expects it.
Someone needs to “fail to clear” that “nurse’s” airway.
That nurse needs to go to a women’s prison and have her airway forcibly obstructed by a transgender ‘woman’