Overflow hospitals’ mortuaries have increased 911 waiting times, beds only become open when patients die. Hospitals in California, where nearly all of the state’s 40 million residents live according to the homelands, see historic tensions.
An increase in new cases of coronavirus and hospitalizations is driving hospitals in Los Angeles County to the “edge of a disaster,” a health official there said.
In just over a month, Los Angeles County has doubled its number of infections and climbed from about 400,000 cases on Nov. 30 to more than 800,000 cases on Jan. 2, health officials said Monday.
The flood has translated into a resurgence of Covid-19 patients, overwhelming hospitals and plunged the capacity of the intensive care unit across the region to zero. There are now more than 7,600 people hospitalized in the province with Covid-19, of which 21% are in the ICU, officials said
As no hospital beds were available, ambulance teams in the country were instructed to transport patients with little chance of survival. And the patients being transported often have to wait hours before a bed is available.
“Hospitals declare internal disasters and must open church gyms to serve as hospital units,” said supervisor Hilda Solis, calling the situation a ‘human disaster’.
And one person dies every 15 minutes from the virus, said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health in Los Angeles.
As hospitalizations climb, the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) has instructed ambulance personnel to transport patients with low chances of survival to hospitals and save on the use of oxygen.
Before the pandemic, when health workers and resources were more readily available, patients who were unlikely to recover could be transported by ambulance to the hospital for treatment.
But the hospitals in Los Angeles are now on capacity and many medical facilities do not have the space to take in patients who do not have the chance to survive, the agency said. The province of EMS has said that patients whose hearts have stopped despite attempts at revival should no longer be transported to hospitals.
“Immediate effect due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 hospitalization, adult patients (18 years or older) in blunt traumatic and non-traumatic cardiac arrest outside hospital (OHCA ) will not be transported [if]spontaneous circulation return (ROSC) is not being achieved in the field, ‘the agency said in a memorandum issued to ambulance workers last week.
If there are no signs of breathing or pulse, EMS will resuscitate for at least 20 minutes, the memo reads. If the patient is stabilized after the period of resuscitation, they will be taken to a hospital. If the patient is pronounced dead at the scene or can not recover a pulse, paramedics will no longer transport the body to the hospital.
And even after arriving at hospitals, some EMTs have to wait hours outside because hospitals often do not have enough beds to take in the patients.
“We’re waiting at least two to four hours for a hospital and now we have to drive even further … then wait another three hours,” EMT Jimmy Webb told CNC subsidiary KCAL.
Local officials tried to encourage the public not to call 911 unless ‘they really need it’, said Dr. Marc Eckstein, commander of the Los Angeles EMS Fire Department, told CNN affiliate KABC.
“I think this next period of four to six weeks is going to be critical if our system is taxed,” Eckstein added.