New York City hospitals now too swamped to try to resuscitate many cardiac arrest patients
Paramedics in New York City have been given temporary new guidelines ordering them not to bring any “adult non-traumatic or blunt traumatic cardiac arrest” patients to city emergency rooms unless their heart can be restarted in the field, because hospitals are too overwhelmed with coronavirus cases.
EMS workers can now only bring such cases to hospitals if there is “a direct order from a medical control physician,” or the ambulance crew itself is facing “an imminent physical danger” at the scene.
The dire directive was issued by the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council of New York City on Tuesday. Previously, ambulance crews would have delivered such patients to emergency rooms for further resuscitation efforts. CBS New York confirmed the story, first reported by the New York Post, and CBS News has obtained a copy of the advisory sent to EMS workers.
New York City is the epicenter of the U.S. COVID-19 epidemic with at least 1,374 of the total 5,137 deaths in the country as of Thursday morning, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The Tuesday advisory took effect immediately, telling EMS crews that, “in the event a resuscitation is terminated, and the body is in public view, the body can be left in the custody of NYPD.
North Korea insists it’s coronavirus-free
North Korea remains totally free of the coronavirus, a senior health official in Pyongyang insisted Thursday, despite mounting skepticism overseas as confirmed global cases near one million.
The already isolated, nuclear-armed North quickly shut its borders in January after COVID-19 was first detected in neighboring China, and imposed strict containment measures.
Pak Myong Su, director of the anti-epidemic department of the North’s Central Emergency Anti-epidemic Headquarters, insisted the efforts had been completely successful. “Not one single person has been infected with the novel coronavirus in our country so far,” Pak told AFP.
Nearly every other country has reported coronavirus cases. Experts have said the North is particularly vulnerable to the disease because of its weak medical system, and defectors have accused Pyongyang of covering up an outbreak.
– AFP
Ellis Marsalis Jr., famed jazz family’s patriarch, dead at 85 of COVID-19 complications
One of the sons of New Orleans jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr. says the patriarch of the New Orleans clan that includes famed musician sons Wynton and Branford has died after battling pneumonia brought on by COVID-19. The jazz patriarch was 85.
Ellis Marsalis III said Wednesday his father had been hospitalized while battling the new coronavirus.
The elder Marsalis opted to stay in New Orleans most of his career, gaining attention when his sons became famous and brought him the spotlight.
Four of his six sons are musicians: Wynton, the trumpeter, is America’s most prominent jazz spokesman as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
– Associated Press
New York City paramedic documents “battlefield triage”
Health care workers are on the frontline of the pandemic. At Jackson South Medical Center, near Miami, staffers started their shift Wednesday with a group prayer, asking for guidance and protection.
In New York City, more than a thousand paramedics and firefighters have tested positive for the coronavirus. FDNY paramedic Megan Pfeiffer shared a video diary of what she calls “battlefield triage” on the frontlines in Queens.
“There’s a lot of hospitals that are running low on oxygen tanks and only have the big ones. They are sharing ventilators. We have never seen anything like this before,” Pfeiffer says.
Watch more in the video below.
