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In reply to the discussion: Castro Valley: Janitor saw elderly become weak [View all]Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)But that's not what I was referring to.
Attempting to render basic aid to someone who is in physical distress does not imply a legal liability for malpractice when the person is not a healthcare professional and the person is doing something sort of in the common run. This man was in the position of a guy walking past a person convulsing breathlessly with an acute asthma attack trying to find a dropped inhaler who grabs the inhaler and hands it to the person, probably.
I guess since the employees were not being paid none of them had a legal duty to take care of the abandoned patients - much less the janitor.
I agree that the employer should face criminal penalties. If the employer doesn't it's a travesty.
CA does have Good Samaritan law, and I think most judges would construe abandoned nursing home patients as an emergency.
http://law.onecle.com/california/health/1799.102.html
It is, I grant you, an emergency that should not have happened, but ... it did. I'm still having trouble assimilating the course of events here.
However I believe that the poster who said the janitor was breaking the law was in error, especially if the person believed help was coming and especially since the person called 911 when he realized it was not.
Bringing food, water and handing someone their medications seems likely to fall within the scope of the Good Samaritan code.
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