CPR after rigor mortis

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Hello All, Do u know where I can find information referring to Long term care scope of practice for RN's? What is the policy on starting cpr after rigor mortis set in? Thank you:)

:chuckle I'm not going to do CPR after rigor mortis period. I don't want to go to jail for abusing a corpse.

plus you try bending that head back... :chuckle

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I have worked in management in long term care for several years and every facility I have worked in has the same policy:

If a person is not a DNR- you are to initiate CPR and you send them out 9-1-1 no matter how you find them unless:

-Obvious lividity is present

or

-they are decapitated (God help us in LTC if this is EVER the case!!!) :uhoh3:

These are the only 2 reasons policy has allowed a licensed individual to make the determination that coding someone is not necessary. Doesn't really give us much credit does it?!

I am somewhat confused. Doesn't DNR mean just that "DO NOT R">>>>>>>>>>> meaning no CPR? If so, then why have a DNR order? Of course, it has been sometime since I was in LTC, so pls explain. I would also think that this would be somewhat of a liability situation for the SNF if the family members are under the impression that DNR means just that....?

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
:chuckle I'm not going to do CPR after rigor mortis period. I don't want to go to jail for abusing a corpse.

:yeahthat:

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
If a person is not a DNR- you are to initiate CPR and you send them out 9-1-1 no matter how you find them unless:

-Obvious lividity is present

or

-they are decapitated (God help us in LTC if this is EVER the case!!!) :uhoh3:

Dumb question, but can one be 'livid' without rigor mortis??

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Dumb question, but can one be 'livid' without rigor mortis??

I believe you can have levidity without mortis.....or before it in many situations

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I believe you can have levidity without mortis.....or before it in many situations

To the poster who said you need a 'script to get an AED. This is no longer true. You can buy them off of Amazon.

As far as rigor mortis and lividity is concerned, I'm not sure what color I would want someone's skin to be after lividity went away :) . What I mean is, rigor mortis is a more time-limited phenomenon, I believe; it will definitely set in before putrefication. I suspect lividity would not go away until putrefecation

set in; even if the blood breaks down (the pooling of which in dependent parts is what causes lividity), there is nothing to take the heme (i.e., red or purpleness) away. I'm pretty sure coroners/medical examiners can tell the position the person died in for quite a while, which is the information that lividity provides.

NurseFirst

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
i believe you can have levidity without mortis.....or before it in many situations

so you don't even have to wait for mortis???

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Specializes in CCU-ICU, Informatics.

At the LTC facility I used to work at in Iowa we did not do CPR on residents who were full codes unless we saw the resident go down. If we found them dead we did nothing.

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Specializes in Prof. Development, New Grad. Residency.

Let's use a little common sense here.

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Specializes in ltc,hospice.

well, everyone funny I found this thread. I am sitting home now instead of being at work. Yesterday, at change of shift, a CNA asked me to look at a resident. She was obviously dead. I just happened to be available, her nurse was on the phone. I told him to get her nurse, I did not know her code status. But believe me she was gone. To make a long story short, myself and several others are now suspended while this is investigated. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. "They" said they dont know the outcome of this and will call me Tuesday. I am in shock!

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My first twelve years of nrsg was in LTC. While we did our best to check everyone every 2 hours, sometimes it just didn't happen. With myself and a CNA to cover 60 pt.'s we would start rounds to check briefs, do oral care, turn/reposition etc and often our rounds would take 2 1/2-3hours. Fortunately we only had three codes in all those years and never had to do one after rigor had began. We did however have to start the code on obviously dead patients just until the doctor would arrive and call it, which never was very long. But I can definately see how some pt.'s are not checked as regularly as they are supposed to be. So glad to be out of that situation now.

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I find this quote a bit funny. Since when is decapitation usually a cause of death? I thought it was always a cause of death.... hmmm. I am taking Adv. 1st Aid now... and we've just finished the section on CPR, so to speak. I think I'll ask this question in class today and see what my instructor says. I can't think of many health care workers that see doing cpr once rigor has set in a good idea.

"CPR neeed not be started if there is evidence of dependent lividity, rigormortis, tissue decomposition or decapitation as these are usually reliable criteria for death".

I remember it so well because I used to teach CPR back then and used to use this quote a LOT.

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