LA ambulance crews told not to transport some patients with low chance of survival amid COVID-19 surge

Source: The Hill | January 5, 2021 | Peter Sullivan

Los Angeles County ambulance crews are being told not to transport some patients with a low chance of survival to hospitals and to conserve oxygen amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

A memo from the county Emergency Medical Services Agency tells crews not to bring patients in cardiac arrest to hospitals unless circulation can be restored in the field “due to the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 Receiving Hospitals.”

A separate memo tells crews not to administer oxygen unless a patient’s oxygen saturation falls below 90 percent “given the acute need to conserve oxygen.”

The stark memos come as Los Angeles is being battered by the pandemic and hospitals are deluged by patients.

The county health department said Monday there were 7,697 people in hospitals with coronavirus, a massive spike from the 791 hospitalized in early November.

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Marianne Gausche-Hill, medical director for the county emergency services agency, sought to offer some reassurance, telling CBS2 that “we are not abandoning resuscitation,” noting it will still be done in the field.

“We are absolutely doing best practice resuscitation and that is do it in the field, do it right away,” she said.

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