As new cases of COVID-19 continue to surge across California, paramedics in Los Angeles County are being told not to transport patients to the hospital who have a low chance of survival. The Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency issued a memo advising first responders that if a patient is suffering from cardiac arrest, they should not bring them to the hospital unless their pulse can be restored at the scene.
"We are not abandoning resuscitation," Dr. Marianne Gausche-Hill said. "We are absolutely doing best practice resuscitation, and that is do it in the field, do it right away."
Hospitals are struggling to deal with the influx of coronavirus cases, and emergency rooms are overflowing with patients, resulting in long wait times for sick people. In some cases, patients have been forced to wait in an ambulance for more than eight hours because no beds were available.
Dr. Christina Ghaly, the L.A. County director of health services, warned that hospitals "have reached a point of crisis and are having to make very tough decisions about patient care."
She explained that many hospitals are still dealing with a surge of patients following Thanksgiving and are not equipped to handle the expected increase in cases as people return home after traveling for the holidays.
"The volume being seen in our hospitals still represents the cases that resulted from the Thanksgiving holiday," she said. "We do not believe that we are yet seeing the cases that stemmed from the Christmas holiday. This, sadly, and the cases from the recent New Year's holiday, is still before us, and hospitals across the region are doing everything they can to prepare."
First responders were also told they must ration their oxygen supplies. In a separate memo, the agency advised paramedics to only use bottled oxygen on patients who have oxygen saturation levels below 90%.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County has doubled since Thanksgiving. On November 30, the county reported a total of more than 400,000 cases. As of January 2, the county has reported a total of 800,000 cases.
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