The outlook is grim for LA County hospitals struggling to keep up with the growing wave of COVID-19 patients.
The numbers have been setting records daily for weeks now.
"Ambulances with critically ill patients are waiting hours to offload patients in crowded emergency departments. Ambulances are going farther distances than they normally would because hospitals are on diversion," she says.
Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county's health services director, says most hospitals are reporting no available ICU beds.
"Half of all of the ICU beds are filled with COVID patients and two-thirds of these patients are suffocating due to the inflammation that is in their lungs that is caused by the virus. They are suffocating to the point that they can no longer breathe on their own and they have to have someone put a tube down their throat in order to oxygenate their organ. Many of these people will not live to see 2021," she says.
The county's reporting a record high 145 COVID-related deaths.
Ghaly blames the surge in hospitalizations and fatalities on people's actions during Thanksgiving. She warns gatherings over the upcoming holidays could lead to "truly harrowing" situations at county hospitals next month.
"The continuously escalating number of COVID positive patients is leaving little room for the care of patients, who don't have COVID, but who still need hospital-level care and that puts everyone's life at risk," Ghaly says.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 665,000 county residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and close to 9,200 have died.