I'm not necessarily saying it is a bad policy. But I'm saying that we should be aware if such a policy exists because it runs counter to what a normal person would expect. I'm still middle aged and still have (knock on wood) many, many years ahead of me, but heaven forbid, if I went into cardiac arrest visiting someone at such a facility and was falsely comforted thinking that there are nurses around, that would be a bad situation because of some blanket policy. At least at McDonald's, I have a chance that a concientious employee or employees will do CPR and hook me up to an AED in case EMS is delayed.

Death is a part of everyone's life but we in the US are terrible about talking about it. Technology and science has gotten way ahead of our ability to deal with death. DNR's, assisted suicide, palliative care, etc. are all important subjets to talk about, but these topics too often get turned into political hand grenades to score election points, unfortunately, and no one really takes the time to actually listen to other viewpoints.

And the consequences of doing CPR on a frail, osteoperotic 87-year old woman is certainly something I sympathize with, DNR or no DNR. But this policy, apparently would also apply to me or my very healthy 67-year mother, too, even if we happened to be visiting and something happened. Just saying we should know when such policies are in place.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife, Lono. That's a tough thing to have to go through.