Flatline patients will not be taken to hosps

Cardiac patients who flatline will not be taken to area hospitals for further care, according to a new directive handed down as the city battles the rise in coronavirus cases.

The new orders from the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council of New York City say that “no adult nontraumatic or blunt traumatic cardiac arrest is to be transported to a hospital with manual or mechanical compressions in progress” unless the person’s heart restarts at the scene.

The council — which sets policies followed by private and government EMS crews in the five boroughs — issued the order to free up emergency room space for the continuing onslaught of COVID-19 cases.

“In the event a resuscitation is terminated, and the body is in public view, the body can be left in the custody of the NYPD,” the directive notes.

Traditionally, EMTs responding to cardiac cases rush their patients to the hospital to continue resuscitation efforts even when the patient has died.

Under the new directive, if CPR is not successful at the scene and the patient has died, “we are terminating the rescue in the prehospital setting,” said Dr. Josef Schenker, chair of the council’s Regional Emergency Medical Advisory Committee.

“It already happens today, but now we’re making it a rule,” Schenker told the Daily News.

In most cases, attempts to resuscitate a patient at the hospital after they flatline in the field “are unsuccessful,” Schenker said.

Yet, in the COVID-19 world, performing CPR in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital could prove more dangerous for EMS members.

“When you have someone performing CPR on a patient in the back of an ambulance, it can aerosolize the virus and contaminate the entire ambulance, Schenker said.

According to the new directive, EMTs can only continue resuscitation efforts in the ambulance if “there is imminent physical danger to the EMS providers on the scene,” the directive notes. Such danger might include violence or a violent threat to EMS workers.