Dispatcher –“Is there anybody that’s willing to help this lady and not let her die?”
Nurse –“Not at this time.”
This is the end of an exchange between a 911 dispatcher and a nurse at a nursing home from Bakersfield, California.
Last week, the nurse called 911 after a resident at the home collapsed in the dining room and was barely breathing. After a frustrating dialogue with this nurse, the dispatcher literally begged her to perform CPR, or to give the phone to anyone else nearby. It was apparently not the policy of the nursing home to perform such life-saving measures on its residents.
If anyone needed more evidence that our world today has indeed become a Culture of Death, it is this incident.
“You know how to judge the appearance of the sky, but you cannot judge the signs of the times,” said Jesus in Matthew 16:3.
As we rapidly approach the holiest season of our Church calendar, and as we fervently ask God for a new Shepherd to lead our flock, remember the times in which we are living. Pray, fast and sacrifice with all your strength. And beg God to send the enlightening Holy Spirit to us, so our Church “may truly be the instrument of (Christ’s) redemption” in our troubled times.
