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The Grim Ritual Sparked by LA’s COVID Overflow Nightmare

Worse Than Ever

Paramedics have nowhere to put sick coronavirus patients, leading to dystopian backlogs outside overloaded hospitals.

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Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/Getty

LOS ANGELES—On Monday, a visibly exhausted ambulance driver began to unload a COVID-19 patient in critical condition outside the emergency room at Adventist Health White Memorial, just east of downtown.

Then he sat down to wait for the hospital to find an open bed.

The driver, who asked to remain anonymous because...

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