Video Shows WWII Veteran Calls for Help and Dies as Nurses Laugh

When James Dempsey, a decorated World War II veteran from Woodstock, Georgia, was dying at an Atlanta nursing home in 2014, the staff didn't help him. Instead, they laughed, according to video obtained by 11Alive that was released in a lawsuit.

The station reports that the attorneys for the Northeast Atlanta Health and Rehabilitation Center tried to block them from getting the video. However, a DeKalb County judge ruled in 11Alive's favor, and the station aired the hidden camera footage this week.

According to 11Alive, the video includes deposition from former nursing supervisor Wanda Nuckles before and after she saw the video. Before, she said a nurse told her when the 89-year-old Dempsey stopped breathing and she performed CPR when she arrived.

However, the hidden camera footage doesn't show anyone performing CPR before Knuckles arrived. It also shows that Nuckles didn't start CPR immediately.

"Sir, that was an honest mistake," Nuckles said in the deposition. "I was just basing everything on what I normally do."

The video shows Dempsey calling for help six times before he becomes unconscious. According to state records, the staff found Dempsey at 5:28 a.m., but didn't call 911 until 57 minutes later. Knuckles and other nurses can be heard laughing while they struggle to get Dempsey's oxygen machine working.

During the deposition, Dempsey's family attorney asks Nuckles if there was anything funny about what was happening. "I can't even remember all that as you can see," she replied.

"In 43 years in nursing, I have never seen such disregard for human life in a health care setting, is what I witnessed," Elaine Harris, a retired nursing professor, told 11Alive after seeing the video.

A spokesperson for Sava Senior Care, which runs the nursing home, said they were "saddened by the events, which occurred more than three years ago." Since then, there has been "new leadership and the leadership team and the staff have worked very diligently to improve quality care and the quality of life for our residents….The facility recently was deficiency-free during our recent annual inspection conducted by the Georgia Department of Health on May 25, 2017," according to the statement.

11Alive reports that the nursing home knew of the video in November 2015, but waited 10 months to fire the nurses. The nursing home has also been fined $813,113 in the past two years.

Dempsey's family didn't respond to the release of the video, citing a settlement reached with the nursing home.

Photo credit: Twitter / @FactsNoHypeGirl