Erin Marie Olszewski, RN: How New York Hospitals are Inflating COVID Numbers
Ex-army nurse now working at New York’s Elmhurst hospital wears a hidden camera and microphone and shows how patients who tested negative for the virus have COVID marked as their cause of death.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-XVqbEe3ns&start=62&width=450&height=253[/embedyt]
Video Transcript
00:10
people watch you can hear the pimp
00:12
actions against the scene has really got
00:17
crazy out here right now
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[Music]
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[Music]
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almost from the onset of the corona
01:27
virus epidemic in the United States New
01:30
York has been described as the epicenter
01:32
of the outbreak an Elmhurst Hospital in
01:35
Queens the epicenter of the epicenter
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obviously Elmhurst Hospital in Queens is
01:40
right now the epicenter within the
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hospital is the epicenter of the
01:45
epicenter Elmhurst Hospital is really at
01:48
the center of this crisis here in the
01:50
city and in the country with doctors
01:52
desperately trying to keep up with the
01:55
growing number of patients as supplies
01:57
dwindle and you see the black body bags
01:59
you say what’s in there its Elmer’s
02:01
Hospital must be supplies it’s not
02:04
supplies it’s people also from the
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beginning of the crisis ventilators were
02:09
described as essential life-saving
02:11
equipment initially in short supply
02:13
you picked the twenty six thousand
02:16
people who were going to die because you
02:18
only sent four hundred ventilators I
02:20
knew that every person who needed a
02:22
ventilator and didn’t get one would die
02:25
but why does New York and Elmhurst in
02:28
particular appear to have been hit so
02:30
much harder than other places in the
02:32
United States and where ventilators ever
02:35
the right approach to treating kovat 19
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especially once we realized that 60 to
02:40
90 percent of those vented do not
02:43
survive the experience and observations
02:46
of nurse Aaron Olszewski seemed to offer
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some answers to these pressing questions
02:51
while simultaneously providing frontline
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information about a number of other
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hot-button topics including the
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disproportionate number of Cova deaths
03:00
among Americans of color the distortions
03:02
surrounding do not resuscitate orders
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the disregard for personal protective
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equipment standards and the clustering
03:09
of kovat positive with kovat negative
03:12
patients which she witnessed again and
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again and the tremendous amount of
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nosocomial or hospital-acquired
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infections that resulted perhaps most
03:23
urgently evolved she speaks of the
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therapies and protocols employed in her
03:27
home state that did work Erin was
03:31
brought from Florida by a service funded
03:33
by the Federal Emergency Management
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Agency she spent almost a month at
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Elmhurst what she saw there compelled
03:40
her to become a reporter and
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whistleblower alongside her already
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extensive nursing duties she made
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recordings posted warnings on social
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media and spoke through proxies about
03:52
the nightmare conditions she witnessed
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Aaron was raised in Wisconsin and
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enlisted in the army when she was 17
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just before 9/11 she deployed in support
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of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 part
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of her duties involved overseeing aid
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disbursement and improvements to
04:12
hospital facilities while in country she
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received the Army Commendation Medal for
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meritorious service and was wounded in
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combat Erin eventually retired as a
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sergeant and became a civilian nurse in
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2012 a mutual friend who was helping her
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make hidden camera recordings introduced
04:32
us to Erin after working a long shift at
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the hospital she agreed to do an
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impromptu interview in her room at the
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Marriott Marquis overlooking Times
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Square we encouraged the viewer to leave
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aside their preconceptions about the
04:46
nature of what is happening to hear
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first-hand from an eyewitness who had
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great personal expense and without
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political prejudice of any kind now
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openly reports what she discovered in
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the hopes that the information will be
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put to good use to save lives she began
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by telling us one of her most disturbing
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findings the people who had repeatedly
05:08
tested negative for kovat were being
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described as kovat confirmed okay so if
05:14
you look close I mean my patient shirt I
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am pulling up like they’re laboratory
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results so if you look here you’ll see
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Cova 19 bio reference lab here are the
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test results as you can see v 1 2020 at
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17 16 not detected they test for a
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second time v for 2020 at 1759 not
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detected so both of those are negative
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scroll up to the top this is my patient
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they’re on a vent and they are being
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called Koba 19 confirmed droplet in
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contact on eye protection oh this person
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a droplet Kovac confirmed positive a
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click not detected no result in their
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book pretty good well Aaron was using
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her hidden camera to document another
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chart showing a patient with negative
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test results who nonetheless was labeled
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Kovac confirmed another travel nurse
06:30
entered the room they began to discuss
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what Aaron was seeing yes come here
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so not detected here for their
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presumptive now they’re all that they
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are detected they’re saying it’s
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positive not detected but it’s naughty
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to say so you said that they were vented
06:51
immediately upon being brought in is
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that yeah so the thing is is they’re
06:56
coming in with difficulty breathing and
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a lot of these patients are really
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coming in with anxiety because everybody
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is they’re scared and when I was back
07:07
home I was working in the IDI out in the
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tents and most people that were coming
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through were coming through with like
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symptoms of just you know anxiety or you
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know they’re worried and they’re reading
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to us then they get all nervous they so
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this is how the people are like coming
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in now I’m not saying that some
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you know don’t have code like there
07:27
there is there are people that come in
07:30
and they really do need help not to the
07:33
extent of event but they can’t help but
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these other people like this person who
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wasn’t coded multiple times you know and
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a lot of them are on either medic
07:43
Medicaid or Medicare they’re poor
07:46
they’re from you know a lower class and
07:49
we’re at a public hospital they need the
07:52
funding so take them they take them and
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they tell on pretty much that if they
07:59
don’t get on event then they’re probably
08:00
not gonna survive but the reality is if
08:03
they get on that vent the likelihood of
08:05
them walking out the hospital is slim to
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none and can I ask you what like peep
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are they on and is that being mandated
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or specified what the pressure is on the
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vent here’s the thing with this so you
08:19
don’t have actual doctors that know
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critical care ICU doctors on these
08:25
floors there’s a dentist and there are
08:29
residents with these so residents are
08:32
essentially students and they have no
08:36
idea what they’re doing like I had a
08:38
police actually today I had two police a
08:40
resident because he wrote an order for
08:42
me to run versed which is a medicine
08:47
that you have to be very careful with
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because it can kill someone at like
08:52
quadruple the speed of what you should
08:55
be running to add the dose and had I not
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known that then I would have easily
09:00
killed the page
09:01
and it would have been okay under their
09:04
kovat standards so everything is kind of
09:07
a wash nobody’s held accountable for
09:09
anything and these people that are
09:10
events are essentially being like
09:12
they’re these residents are like
09:15
practicing their skills on them so
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they’re practicing central lines they’re
09:20
practicing like invasive procedures that
09:23
are really unnecessary what is the
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percentage of black Latino white what’s
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the racial composition Hispanic and
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black for the majority and what’s the
09:35
age range and Asian and what’s the age
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range 20 year olds all the way up to 70
09:42
80 year olds very few out I should say
09:45
very few 80 year olds but the majority
09:48
of people I would say are in their 40s
09:50
or 50s Wow and what percentage of the
09:54
people that are in there deep would you
09:56
say actually have tested positive for
09:59
kovat half probably have but everyone is
10:06
being treated as though the entire
10:08
hospitals caught it so half the
10:11
hospitals not covered but they were in
10:13
coughing floors so let me just ask you
10:15
about nose acromial infection so you’re
10:18
saying they’re putting non kovat or Cova
10:21
drool out with definite kovat patients
10:24
yes so I was only wondering cuz like I
10:26
was looking at like all the patient
10:27
rooms and like this patient is in with
10:30
like a non co-ed I don’t I don’t
10:32
understand why they’re doing that I know
10:34
there’s more patients in a row here
10:37
you’re on Kevin and this is supposed to
10:40
be the covered yeah seventh floor they
10:44
shut it down sir and I’m confused
10:47
Kovac there yeah this is gonna be the
10:50
only Kovac so they shouldn’t put any
10:52
well doesn’t it been doing their banking
10:55
on the fact that they’ll get it cuz
10:57
they’re ready and you know compromise so
11:00
they’re just there and they’ll put them
11:03
in the same room so there’s double room
11:04
so you have a cove it with anon Cove it
11:06
they don’t even care we have enough
11:08
rooms where they can be separated now
11:09
because it’s not as busy as it was you
11:12
know four weeks ago but they don’t care
11:15
they’re just putting them together I
11:16
have that right now happening like the
11:18
guy over and yeah and there’s and a
11:24
positive like a guy over in 29 I had him
11:27
upstairs doesn’t CC you before yeah and
11:30
he came in with a with a stroke and no
11:37
part of it and now he’s got coded an
11:41
event she literally came in with him
11:51
through and then she left like five
11:53
minutes later my patient had died of
11:55
copán and she didn’t lock the floor she
11:59
was cleaning getting prepared for my
12:01
next patient and she did people don’t
12:10
know how to properly wear their PPE good
12:13
let’s go back to Ebola like when a bola
12:16
was here people take that very seriously
12:19
you have you have a nurse in the room
12:23
and all the head-to-toe PPE this is okay
12:26
bola this is this is I’m gonna compare
12:28
it and you have another nurse that’s
12:30
outside the room handing supplies you
12:34
know the the clean nurse and the dirty
12:36
nurse right going and when they’re
12:39
taking their their outfit off the you
12:42
know one nurse is unzipping the back so
12:45
she can take it out walking out they’re
12:48
not doing that
12:49
here we’re wearing like our scrubs and
12:53
then we have maybe like a net top our
12:56
pants are exposed they’re wearing
12:59
booties over their shoes but the booties
13:01
are going room to room to room and then
13:03
people will wear them to the hospital
13:05
so there’s massive spread just the the
13:08
improper use of the PPE I mean that’s
13:11
it’s a no-brainer everyone it looks good
13:14
it looks good looks like you’re super
13:16
safe but in reality it’s ridiculous
13:20
you’re gonna go to yo go room to room
13:23
you maybe take that top up and a new top
13:25
on right the rest of you are still
13:27
exposed but I mean why are they doing
13:30
this you know principal hospitals that
13:39
mean it like it no Zuko be all like we
13:44
have in the United States and we have
13:47
had it for a while a rapid test it’s 45
13:51
minutes do you have Kovac don’t you
13:53
they’re not they’re not doing the right
13:56
potassium they’re not know the okay I
14:01
almost you’ve never known know if they
14:04
don’t do it it’s too expensive they do
14:06
Friday it’s like five to seven day
14:08
turnaround in the meantime they admit
14:11
them onto covered units so non kovetz
14:16
the rule-outs
14:17
are going to covet units and waiting for
14:20
the results even though we have a rapid
14:22
result which is 45 minutes and they’re
14:26
not doing it no not one but would you
14:30
say it’s too expensive I mean isn’t this
14:32
all getting charged to the fund anyway I
14:34
mean why not do it why not
14:37
are you saying I don’t know why it
14:39
doesn’t make any sense to me
14:41
I asked that doctor about it how come
14:45
you guys don’t do the rapid tests here
14:48
as siblings I mean it exists it’s just
14:51
they don’t have access to it is only to
14:53
supply so if you deep pockets you get
14:55
first Oh so money most times it’s money
14:59
about everything yes that’s sad it’s a
15:02
reality I compare this hospital to a
15:06
third-world country I’ve been in the
15:08
third-world country hospital in Iraq the
15:11
Iraq hospital is better than this one
15:14
and that says a lot I’ve been there I’ve
15:16
had I’ve been in both hospitals and
15:20
we’re this is in the United States and
15:23
those hospitals treating low-income
15:27
mostly people and it almost makes me
15:33
feel like they think these people are
15:36
disposable and they’re not they’re
15:39
they’re they’re people you know
15:41
everybody people are not disposable you
15:45
know especially especially these the
15:49
ones that are struggling day in and day
15:51
out or the hard workers you know like
15:55
trying to reach that American Dream and
15:59
they’re not given a chance because
16:01
they’re brought to this place where
16:03
nobody cares and is there a understood
16:09
financial incentive to diagnose kovat
16:12
yeah of course so in the hospital that
16:15
men right now it’s all Kovac at this
16:17
point every single floor is coated and
16:19
they need it that way obviously for a
16:22
reason
16:23
in my opinion but the person cannot come
16:27
to the floor unless they have a cold
16:28
diagnosis it was the reason did they not
16:32
want to cross-contaminate is that would
16:34
that be the legitimate reason why you
16:36
would create an all covered floor um
16:38
here’s why I will say no to that is
16:41
because they’re admitting people for
16:43
quote coded rule out so this guy was
16:46
probably admitted Cova drool out tested
16:49
him they saw that it came back negative
16:51
they probably already did something
16:54
where they needed to now call him Colvin
16:56
in the hopes that if they’re putting him
16:59
on a Kovac floor and there’s nurses
17:01
going room to room to room he will get
17:03
it and then they’ll be you know they’ll
17:06
be back to when he does pass that he did
17:08
have Kovac now I mean that’s that’s
17:11
court they know that’s quite a charge I
17:13
mean what makes you think they really
17:15
want them to to get Kovac
17:18
because money money it’s I think it’s at
17:21
least twenty nine thousand dollars per
17:23
per patient and then you have to think
17:26
you’re also charging supplies and more
17:28
supplies more supplies that’s just like
17:30
a bonus money but what do the but the
17:33
residents aren’t getting that right I
17:35
mean why
17:36
well that’s the thing and I actually had
17:38
a I’ve went at it with a lot of
17:42
residents already and they’re there
17:45
order followers so there was resident
17:49
and I have this on tape a video I taped
17:53
it because it was just so disgusting to
17:55
me a 37 year old which is my age
18:02
was not a DNR is a full code his family
18:06
in depth discuss with the doctors that
18:09
they want us to do it and they can to
18:10
save him he came in talking you’re very
18:13
terrified he was just like you know
18:15
totally alert I knew it was going on and
18:19
they convinced him to be an event now
18:22
he’s dead but the doctor said when I
18:24
turn into shift that if he codes that we
18:27
are not to resuscitate or try to save
18:30
him and we flipped either could it be on
18:36
our order and they said no that’s up to
18:38
the attending okay so we’re gonna for
18:40
now that’s what I said a nice and or not
18:42
I guess we are obligated to so that I
18:45
have you got to say something to like
18:46
it’s our license unfortunately you guys
18:48
gotta put in an order just so that’s
18:50
what I can’t but I’m obligated in where
18:52
the cheese that he’s like the higher-ups
18:53
said I said I don’t care what they said
18:55
good higher up bad we don’t have a God
18:57
here and making isolation I don’t care
18:59
what they decide so we’re supposed to
19:04
he’s mad DNR but richer yeah as you know
19:09
to this family no family
19:15
the thing they called them and then told
19:17
them there are 10 whole days spent like
19:23
in the eighties saturated it was that
19:27
this one on the forehead I wanna change
19:31
that I go to it’s 90 yeah so they
19:33
started playing alone with 18 pulse-ox
19:37
his head his finger yeah so what was
19:46
that so that was we were just getting on
19:50
shift because we were starting the night
19:53
shift at 7:00 and that was the nurse
19:57
from the day shifting pretty much we
20:01
shouldn’t coat him if he’s going to the
20:04
code and then I turned my glasses on why
20:10
are we being told not to
20:13
Dakota
20:16
I mean cuz I’m gonna tell you right now
20:17
if he finds out I’m jumping on his chest
20:18
period point-blank it’s gonna happen
20:21
because until that status has changed in
20:24
the computer that’s what I am obligated
20:27
to do under right you know you guys
20:32
aren’t gonna back me up and protect me
20:34
well Elmer’s does have a policy and
20:37
given I’ve got a coded policy getting
20:40
there
20:40
scarcity of right dialysis it’s not
20:45
there’s not a it’s a difference
20:49
normally the Sanders whatever the family
20:51
that says like we just do exactly will
20:53
say coding for five years like we just
20:54
do that right it’s a little bit
20:58
different now because of the new policy
21:00
in place a little bit in place which is
21:03
that you don’t need it full family can
21:08
sit like you can just tell someone but
21:09
it’s medically futile of it we’re not
21:11
willing to this poor blood and resources
21:13
into some of it isn’t
21:15
would you possibly get back but I look
21:19
it’s bruised 37 I mean he’s right well
21:22
our higher-ups have agreed and our
21:23
attendings agree that this is futile
21:25
care at this point here so I guess I
21:27
said he doesn’t have enough eager
21:28
throwing he doesn’t have anything to
21:30
sustain going and I said and who decided
21:33
this and I say can you put a comfort
21:34
care order and I know we can’t do that
21:36
can you put a DNR order and no we can’t
21:38
do that I said so what’s our plan do not
21:41
modify those well he’s dying and I’m
21:43
like I understand that but there needs
21:45
to be an order indicating that either
21:47
I’m doing compressions or I’m not doing
21:48
compressions well I can say that we
21:50
cannot be in agreements that we will do
21:52
it I will definitely
21:54
cuz I’m gonna jump on ya so why I’ll go
21:57
over it with you I don’t care that’s
21:58
what we that’s what we’re here for I’m
21:59
not playin like I totally change his
22:01
status that he is a DNR and they can do
22:03
a true position consent if they’ve
22:04
talked to the family yeah but until they
22:06
change it and I see it he’s a full coat
22:10
we know when someone is close we’ll pull
22:13
the code card up and be ready
22:16
you know we’re ready I had the EPI ready
22:18
this is one of the first things we do
22:20
and she wouldn’t let me give it so this
22:23
was that woman and the entire time and
22:25
this was over his over his body his
22:30
alive body and were arguing and she’s
22:33
laughing
22:34
she was smirking and how that how this
22:38
this man died was the nurses arguing
22:42
with the doctors over him as he was
22:46
dying and she’s smirking the entire time
22:49
I was a so it was probably one of the
22:53
worst experiences in my entire life
22:56
but all I can think about is that at
23:00
least he knows that we were fighting for
23:01
him when he died
23:06
No
23:11
but this was my conversation after after
23:15
what happened and the guy I told you
23:19
about earlier that had pulled his tube
23:22
oh he was up at that point like he was
23:25
on the same floor he had pulled his he
23:28
was the one that they wanted to sedate
23:31
so at that point he was doing better
23:35
where he could walk this doctor and put
23:38
a diaper on him and told him to poop in
23:40
his pants so after the code I wouldn’t
23:44
go check on him and he’s poop he has he
23:47
goes I have poop in my pants I’m like
23:49
why do you poop in your pants and he
23:53
said that because the doctor told him
23:55
that he has to do that and I’ve just
23:57
lost it it was her this is wrong it is
24:01
straight up just it is wrong and I have
24:06
been I am 37 years old I have been in a
24:08
hospital since I’ve been 16 military
24:11
hospitals that was I agree that there
24:15
were parts of it that were wrong to
24:17
calling it a patient a DNR when there’s
24:19
no order for it and telling us like
24:22
straight up telling us you’re not doing
24:24
anything that’s wrong if that was my
24:27
brother or my father or anybody I would
24:31
be furious and I guarantee you if I
24:33
called his family right now and told him
24:35
what what happened they would be furious
24:36
too
24:38
you
24:49
you