A Plea For Life

by Mariah Beachboard and the GGR Editorial Staff

Pay attention. This article is not sensationalism. This article is not a plea for likes, follows, reposts, or fame. This article is a plea for your life.

Here are the latest developments in LA hospitals:

• You get a number based on family history, how sick you are, and whether or not there’s a vent/bed/nurse available. This kind of triage is unusual, because it is determined on resources available. If you have a low chance of survival, they will not vent you.*

• Ambulances are routinely backed up at hospitals, trying to drop off their patients. The extraordinary wait to offload their patient has become so problematic, that the EMS department has come up with a solution: they are setting up tents outside the hospital and dropping up to 20 patients in those tents. They are leaving one paramedic unit behind to care for that tent of patients, so that the rest of the ambulances can go out on more calls.

• PPE (gowns) for the medical staff is stuck in the USPS mail backlog. 

• Nurses who haven’t had a day off in three months are now intubating their coworkers.

Do not blow this off. What is happening in LA is going to happen in your town. It may already be happening. Please don’t wait to isolate and mask up. I am begging you. If you don’t follow the guidelines, you will be judged according to your estimated survival chance and given a number. 

This is not sensationalism. This is happening right now. Please wake up.

*Many patients with COVID have great difficulty breathing and must be put on a ventilator. It helps them breathe. There is a limited number of ventilator machines.