Omaha Scout again uses CPR to save a life

From the Des Moines Register:

Sunday was the second time in a little more than a year that Jack Pape was called upon to save a life.

The Omaha 15-year-old learned CPR through the Boy Scouts of America, and his lifesaving skills first were tested in June 2008 after a deadly 140-mph tornado tore through a western Iowa Boy Scout camp.

He found himself in the midst of chaos and rubble, watching as blood mixed with the rain, and in a position to help his peers.

“We tried to find who was hurt the worst and help him,” Pape told CNN at the time.

On Sunday, while vacationing with his family at Comfort Suites in Urbandale, Pape’s lifesaving skills were needed again.

The Papes were headed out to dinner when two 13-year-old boys ran over to ask if anyone knew CPR.

The teens had pulled a 6-year-old Des Moines boy from the indoor pool at the hotel, 11167 Hickman Road. The boy wasn’t breathing.

“My family and I ran over to see what happened and came over and started CPR, with my mom counting beats and checking for a pulse,” Pape said. “I didn’t really think about anything else than doing what I’m trained to do. For me, it kind of is instinct. In Boy Scouts, they run it over us a billion times of what we’re supposed to do.”

Pape kept up CPR until Urbandale police arrived.

The boy was taken to Iowa Methodist Medical Center, and on Thursday he was in pediatric intensive care, said Urbandale Police Sgt. Dave Disney.

Hospitals oppose training some workers to spot abuse

From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa hospitals are objecting to a proposed regulation that would force them to broaden employee training on how to spot patient abuse and neglect.

Under Iowa law today, only the clinical staff members of Iowa hospitals are required to undergo training as mandatory reporters of dependent-adult abuse. In Iowa’s nursing homes, that training requirement extends to the nonclinical employees – such as the housekeeping staff and the food-service workers – who have regular contact with patients.

The proposed new rule would force Iowa’s hospitals to provide those same types of workers with training. As written, it specifically excludes from the new training requirement any workers who “do not provide treatment or services” to patients.

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, Iowa Department on Aging, Iowa Department of Public Health and AARP are in favor of the new rule. They say nonclinical workers who come in regular contact with patients should receive some basic training in spotting and responding to patient abuse.

The Iowa Hospital Association’s reading of the rule is that it would require all hospital employees – including administrators, accountants and mailroom workers – to receive the training, which consists of two hours of instruction every five years. The association says that would cost millions of dollars and wouldn’t enhance patient safety.

At the group’s urging, dozens of Iowa hospital administrators and executives have written to the state to protest the proposal in an attempt to block its approval by legislators on the Administrative Rules Review Committee.