“We are not abandoning resuscitation”

Since the memo began circulating online, many people have questioned whether first responders would deny taking stroke and heart attack patients to the hospital because of the coronavirus surge.

The medical director of L.A. County’s Emergency Services Agency, Dr. Marianne Gausche-Hill, assured CBS2 that officials continue to do all they can to save patients’ lives at the scene and the hospital, as they always have.

“We are not abandoning resuscitation,” Gausche-Hill said. “We are absolutely doing best practice resuscitation and that is do it in the field, do it right away… What we’re asking is that — which is slightly different than before — is that we are emphasizing the fact that transporting these patients arrested leads to very poor outcomes. We knew that already and we just don’t want to impact our hospitals.”