Elderly woman dies after nurse refuses to do CPR

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities say an elderly woman being cared for at a California retirement facility died after a nurse at the facility refused to perform CPR on the woman after she had collapsed.

Local media reports say when the 86-year-old resident of Glenwood Gardens in Bakersfield collapsed at the facility around 11 a.m. Tuesday a staff member called 911, but refused to give the woman CPR.

Bakersfield television station ABC23 reports that in in refusing the 911 dispatcher's insistence that she perform CPR, the nurse can also be heard telling the dispatcher that it was against the retirement facility's policy to perform CPR.

An ambulance arrived several minutes after the call and took the woman to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

The retirement facility released a statement saying protocol was followed, but that a "thorough internal review of the matter" would be conducted.