The outbreak of the corona plague in Los Angeles County, which includes the city itself, has reached a state where hospitals are collapsing, prompting District Health Superintendent Hilda Saldis to issue an unusual directive that “people who have a medical problem that is unlikely to survive” should not be hospitalized.
California: Huge queues at corona checkpoints // Photo: Reuters
The reason for the teaching is the state of the local health system, which is flooded with Corona patients, so much so that the hospitals have opened large tents and used churches to try to control the huge flow of inpatients flowing to them. “We are in a state of humanitarian disaster, we have 7,900 hospitalized patients, 21% of them in critical condition,” district officials said.
In fact the epidemic is so widespread that the number of hospitalized patients has jumped by another 200 people since last Monday. Also in terms of mortality yesterday (Tuesday) 224 people died and in total about 11,000 people died from the virus in the district.
Following the flooding, ambulance crews received an official order stating that people whose chances of survival should not be evacuated to hospitals. Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Director of Operations at Seder-Sinai Medical Center, explained that “this is an individual and limited order. This refers to such people who suffered, for example, from a heart attack and were unable to regain their heart rate in the field. “Such people have a low chance of survival during the transfer to the hospital, so in the current situation there is no point in evacuating them.”
Determining who will live and who will die?
It is important to note that the district has issued orderly instructions on the subject stating that “a patient who has undergone cardiac arrest and resuscitation for 20 minutes should not be evacuated but to declare death on the spot.” But this is not the only exceptional instruction of the medical authorities. For example, due to a shortage of oxygen tanks, it has been determined that only those whose blood oxygen content has dropped below 90 will receive a device.
The great shortage of oxygen, led California Governor Gwyn Niosm, to establish a national task force whose job is to supply oxygen devices to the hospital. The force turns to various factories and local authorities to fill the tanks in the hospitals themselves.
Damages from New Year’s parties
California is the most populous state in the US and 1 in 9 Americans lives in it. So it is now paying huge for the gatherings and parties held by people on New Year’s Eve last week. This is reflected in a jump of 22,000 new patients reported as well as the fact that the death rate in the plague stands The country currently has about 27,000 people.
In this regard, Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles’ director of public health, says that “we are facing a huge wave, and this time we will be hit hard, much more than before. Unfortunately, this increase will continue.”
Ambulances wait for hours at the entrances to hospitals
Even the lucky ones who have been evacuated to the emergency rooms are now going through a lot of suffering until they get to the wards. In fact, many patients experience a deterioration in their condition, as it is not possible to absorb them at present. “We work hard with rescue services to evacuate patients to distant and less crowded hospitals,” Jeffrey Smith said.
