The COVID surge in Los Angeles is so bad that county ambulance crews were told Monday to cut back on their use of oxygen so it can be reserved for the patients who need it most. The Los Angeles Times reports that only patients with oxygen saturation rates below 90 percent will get oxygen, even though a reading below 95 percent is abnormal for most people. The paper also reports that the oxygen directive comes days after the L.A. County Emergency Medical Services Agency told paramedics they should not take patients who cannot be resuscitated in the field to the hospital for further life-saving efforts and should instead declare them dead in the field if they cannot restore breathing or a pulse. L.A. hospitals are completely overwhelmed by the spike in cases fueled by Thanksgiving and are preparing for even worse conditions once cases from Christmas and New Year’s travel and gathering start to manifest themselves.
