Los Angeles County’s healthcare system was buckling Wednesday under the unprecedented surge of COVID-19 patients, with bodies piling up at morgues and medical professionals resorting to increasingly desperate measures as they brace for conditions to worsen in the coming weeks.
With hospitals overwhelmed by patients and no outlet valve available, doctors, nurses and paramedics are being forced to make wrenching choices about who gets care and at what level.
“No one would believe this is in the United States,” said Scott Byington, a critical care nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. “Everyone is doing what they can do. It’s not that anybody is slacking. It’s just that it’s too overwhelming for everyone.”
California National Guard medical corps pitches in to help struggling hospitals
Melissa Quintero takes blood from a patient inside a hallway in the emergency department at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley. The medical center is currently receiving support from the California National Guard.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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As hospitals are slammed by waves of COVID-19 patients, the California National Guard is lending a hand.
Guard troops are stationed at 13 medical facilities in the state, including Adventist Health White Memorial in Los Angeles, Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia and Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley.
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