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This is the shocking moment when a group of nurses laughed as an elderly patient gasped his last breaths - some two hours after he called for help when he struggled to breathe.

James Dempsey, 89, had hollered for staff to come to his aid and pressed a buzzer when his breathing machine failed, horror footage shows.

A care worker then turned up seven minutes later and merely adjusted his bed and light and left him struggling for air and losing consciousness, the surveillance video aired by WXIA-TV/11Alive revealed.

Two nurses then turn up almost 90 minutes later at 6.23am - after Mr Dempsey had first called for help at 4.35 am.

(Image: 11Alive)

But rather than give him any medical attention the pair merely fix the WWII veteran's blanket and alter his bed in his room in the Northeast Atlanta Health and Rehabilitation Center in Georgia.

Three nurses then show up at 6.30am during the tragedy in February 2014 and are seen chatting, the video showed.

Only then do they appear to realise that Mr Dempsey was apparently unconscious and try to restart the oxygen machine.

The care workers then give him CPR, while all are laughing and one is apparently bent over in a fit of giggles, as Mr Dempsey draws in his final breaths.

(Image: 11Alive)

The efforts to revive him failed and only after an hour do the care staff call paramedics and Mr Dempsey is later officially pronounced dead.

The three nurses at the centre of the scandal kept their licences after the tragedy.

They continued working at the care home despite revealing the shocking details during Mr Dempsey's death in a probe.

A video interview by the family's attorney Mike Prieto with former nursing supervisor Wanda Nuckles shined a light on the horror.

In one exchange with Mr Prieto, Ms Nuckles claims she rushed to Mr Dempsey's room when a nurse alerted her that he had stopped breathing, according to the video interview.

Mr Prieto said: “From the time you came in, you took over doing chest compressions…correct?”

(Image: 11Alive)



Ms Nuckles replied: “Yes.”

Mr Prieto added: “Until the time paramedics arrive, you were giving CPR continuously?”

Ms Nuckles again said: “Yes.”

The video, however, shows no one doing CPR when Ms Nuckles entered the room. She also did not immediately start doing CPR.

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

None of the nurses were reprimanded despite the shocking revelations.

The bosses of the care home only fired the staff 10 months after they had learned of the video footage showing Mr Dempsey drawing his last breaths as the nurses laughed.

(Image: 11Alive)

Mr Dempsey's son Tim had installed the secret camera in his dad's room after fearing he may be mistreated by workers in the home.

He wanted to release it to the public after his dad tragically died but was blocked by the care home bosses.

But it emerged this week after a three year legal battle, when Georgia State Supreme court ruled in the favour of the family.

The three nurses at the centre of the scandal have since given up their licences to practice after the shock footage came out.

The Dempsey family have declined to comment over the tragic death of their loved one.

Care home bosses Sava Senior Care said in a statement they were “saddened by the events, which occurred more than three years ago”.

It added that the company has “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.”