PRO-LIFE NEWS IN BRIEF.

Nurse's Aide Fired for Reporting Neglect

Babcock worked at Terrace Heights Care Center in Boulder, where 67-year-old multiple sclerosis patient Barbara Busch-Endres had been residing since February 21. Busch-Endres needed care after suffering complications from her condition, but she was scheduled to be returning home soon, the Post reported.

However, on March 9, Babcock said she watched as a licensed vocational nurse performed "rescue breathing" on Busch-Endres, who seemed to be in distress, according to the Post.

Busch-Endres then began to vomit, and the nurse stopped helping her, Babcock told the Post. "He said, `I don't want to deal with vomit,'" Babcock said. "I couldn't believe it. I wanted to do something, anything, but it's stuff my scope of practice doesn't allow me to do."

A nursing supervisor and the nurse then examined Busch-Endres's chart to see if she had a "do not resuscitate" order. Babcock told the Post that she saw a paper in Busch-Endres's file that said she wanted everything possible done to save her life.

"(The nurse) saw the paper, too, and said that he wasn't really comfortable having that around," Babcock said, according to the Post. The nurse then threw away the request and replaced it with a blank form, the Post reported.

Nothing more was done to save Busch-Endres. Doctors interviewed by the Post insisted that, at the very least, a vomiting patient should be turned to her side to prevent suffocation.