On 12/28/20, EMTs in Los Angeles County, California, were told not to transport to hospital, patients with extremely low chances of survival. NY gave a similar order back in April perhaps as a companion piece to governor Cuomo’s nursing home order sentencing senior citizens to death. Most of the LA patients not being transported would pass away even if they were brought to the hospital. But how many lives saved makes it worth it, one? Two? Three? Los Angeles EMTs
If blue states are so much better and wiser than red states, why are no Republican states telling their EMTs to keep their patients away from hospitals? LA EMTs were also told to ration oxygen, which is in short supply due to the pandemic.
Under the new rules paramedics arrive on the scene, the clock starts ticking.
With intensive care units at Southern California hospitals nearly full because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) has directed ambulance crews not to transport patients with little chance of survival to hospitals, and to conserve the use of oxygen.
Los Angeles and Southern California are dealing with one of the country’s worst outbreaks of the novel coronavirus. ICU bed capacity plunged to 0% in Southern California last month, as more and more people were admitted to hospital seeking treatment for Covid-19.
…If there are no signs of breathing or a pulse, EMS will continue to perform resuscitation for at least 20 minutes, the EMS memo said. If the patient is stabilized after the period of resuscitation, the patient would then be transported to a hospital. If the patient is declared dead at the scene or if no pulse can be restored, paramedics will no longer transport the body to the hospital.
Oxygen shortage: A shortage of oxygen in Los Angeles and the nearby San Joaquin Valley, thanks to Covid-19, is putting immense pressure on the system and forcing paramedics to conserve the supply. [Emphasis added.]
The oxygen order went out on Monday 1/4:
According to a LA Times tally of local health jurisdictions, California posted a new single-day record for coronavirus cases Monday, logging more than 74,000. The LA County Department of Public Health reported 9,142 new Covid cases on January 4th and 77 additional deaths. The county, which is the worst hit in the US, has recorded 818,000 coronavirus cases and more than 10,700 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
But how can that be? Everything is locked down in LA–heck in the entire state. Gavin Newsome says lockdowns work—shouldn’t COVID be eliminated from the whole state? Shouldn’t red states like Florida or Texas, with their back-to-normalcy policies, be way worse than California? Well, they should—only for those who are as tone-deaf as California, New York, Michigan, or other blue-state governors.
Parts of this post were first seen at Clash Daily
Los Angeles EMTs
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