By Spencer Hunt and Debra Jasper
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Arthur Roy Waggoner was battling a fever and a urinary tract infection when he made loud snoring noises and stopped breathing at his Cincinnati nursing home.

A worker at Residential Management Services' Springlawn home called 911, and the operator told her to start CPR.

According to a state Health Department report, the worker told the 911 operator she didn't know how to do it.

When the 911 operator offered to talk her through it, the worker hung up. The report says she was worried that Mr. Waggoner, 44, had hepatitis and she didn't want to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The worker called 911 back after Residential Management's central office told her Mr. Waggoner didn't have hepatitis. But by that time an emergency squad had arrived.

Mr. Waggoner died that day, Oct. 19, 1999, of kidney infection, complicated by hypertensive heart disease and epilepsy.

The Health Department threatened to decertify the home in December 1999 for not having a staff person available who was trained to perform CPR. The threat was withdrawn after the home retrained workers and put in a system to track training schedules.

"This situation constituted evidence of neglect as the client suffered deterioration/death due to the lack of medical attention and oversight," the Health Department report says.

Gwen Lee, a Residential Management director, says the staffer who was trained in CPR was temporarily away on the day Mr. Waggoner died. "As far as I can tell, it was an isolated incident," she says.

Mr. Waggoner's sister, Tillie Biery of Cincinnati, says she didn't know about the 911 call. Although it's not clear if CPR would have saved her brother's life, she says she's disturbed it wasn't performed.

She says Mr. Waggoner was generally happy at the home: "He loved to sit on the porch and get out with the boys and play ball. He loved the Reds. I wish I could share with you all that he meant me."

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