{"id":2390189,"date":"2025-01-14T13:20:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T18:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whistleblower-medics-working-with-expired-meds-as-l-a-burns\/"},"modified":"2025-01-14T13:23:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T18:23:47","slug":"whistleblower-medics-working-with-expired-meds-as-l-a-burns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whistleblower-medics-working-with-expired-meds-as-l-a-burns\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistleblower: Medics Working With Expired Meds As L.A. Burns"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhistleblower-medics-working-with-expired-meds-as-l-a-burns%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2390189&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>As \u2064wildfires rage through \u200cthe suburbs\u200b of Los Angeles, paramedics are reportedly facing\u200b a critical shortage of medical supplies, including expired medications. A whistleblower, a firefighter and paramedic, \u2062has revealed that expired drugs\u200c are still being used in ambulances despite previous claims from the Los Angeles\u200b Fire Department (LAFD) of having\u200b received extensions on expiration dates due too supply shortages. The whistleblower \u200craises serious concerns, stating he encounters expired medications &#8220;literally every day&#8221; and\u2062 that the city is\u2063 failing to provide proper resupplies. He has shared images showing expired medications like nitroglycerin and epinephrine in \u2064his ambulance, which are not listed for extended use. The whistleblower alleges that \u2064some medications have \u200bhad new expiration dates applied over the old ones, indicating further mismanagement. Attempts \u2064to bring these issues to LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley have \u200creportedly gone unaddressed.The situation raises \u2063alarming questions about the safety\u2063 and effectiveness \u2064of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">emergency medical care amid ongoing crises<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>As wildfires scour the Los Angeles suburbs, resources are scarce &mdash; including for the city&rsquo;s paramedics, who have allegedly been working with expired medication. But this problem is hardly new.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the Los Angeles Fire Department was allegedly supplying medics with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/news\/la-firefighters-allegedly-being-supplied-expired-medications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expired medications<\/a>, Fox 11 reported. At the time, the LAFD <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/news\/la-firefighters-allegedly-being-supplied-expired-medications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a> it got an &ldquo;extension&rdquo; on the expiration dates due to a &ldquo;supply shortage,&rdquo; and that &ldquo;new medication was received&rdquo; since then. But a whistleblower &mdash; who asked The Federalist to protect his identity &mdash; says the city is still keeping its medics stocked with expired drugs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&ldquo;Imagine I&rsquo;m your mom or dad and I get expired medication, your mom or dad dies,&rdquo; the whistleblower said. &ldquo;What would you say?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower, a firefighter and paramedic, told The Federalist his ambulance is currently stocked with expired medication. He said he deals with expired drugs &ldquo;literally every day&rdquo; because the city does not resupply medics with newer doses.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Nitroglycerin spray used by LAFD paramedics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>The nitroglycerin expired in November but is still in the whistleblower&rsquo;s ambulance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Epinephrine, which also expired in November, in the whistleblower&rsquo;s ambulance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;They continue to not have the medications. Everything expires, and so we can&rsquo;t keep up,&rdquo; he said. He sent pictures of epinephrine and nitroglycerin spray, both of which are marked as having expired in November &mdash; but are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/drugs\/drug-shortages\/search-list-extended-use-dates-assist-drug-shortages\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">not currently listed<\/a> as having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-government-relaunches-covid-19-testing-program\/\" title=\"Federal Government restarts COVID-19 testing initiative.\">extended expiration dates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower claims the city put labels with new expiration dates over the old dates, such as with a vial of the sedative Midazolam &mdash; set to expire in February of last year, but which came with a stick-on expiration date of that July. Local news <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/news\/la-firefighters-allegedly-being-supplied-expired-medications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> on this at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower says he tried bringing this issue to the attention of LAFD Chief <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/10\/crime-corruption-and-incompetence-pay-well-for-leftist-big-city-leaders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kristin Crowley<\/a> last year but never heard back.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Midazolam with the new expiration date covering the old.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Midazolam with the new expiration date covering the old.       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>The same vial of Midazolam with the original expiration.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>The same vial of Midazolam with the original expiration.       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>Straining Resources<\/h2>\n<p>While the medication issue has been longstanding, so has the broader lack of resources among the city&rsquo;s paramedics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While the wildfires have been threatening Los Angeles, most of the city has been out of reach of the few ambulances on duty, according to a map the whistleblower shared with The Federalist.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is what happens every single day, if not worse,&rdquo; said the whistleblower. He says he routinely answers calls with 20-plus minute response times.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The green on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/taliban-seize-afghanistans-2nd-largest-city-continue-to-put-pressure-on-capital-of-kabul\/\" title=\"Taliban seize Afghanistan\u2019s 2nd-largest city, continue to put pressure on capital of Kabul\">map shows areas<\/a> with ambulance coverage, the whistleblower says, while the red shows a lack thereof. Purple and yellow indicate paramedics are present, but in vehicles aside from ambulances. A screenshot of the map &mdash; taken in real time Monday night &mdash; shows much of the city in red.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The whistleblower also provided a screenshot of the map from Friday, showing an even worse situation &mdash; a blanket of no ambulance coverage across the city, except for three small areas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The LAFD has been operating under pressure to rein in spending, with Mayor Karen Bass <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-14271021\/los-angeles-mayor-karen-bass-fires-department-budget-cuts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pressuring<\/a> the department to cut nearly $49 million just weeks before the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/10\/if-californians-dont-fire-newsom-hell-burn-whats-left-of-their-home-to-the-ground\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">massive<\/a> Palisade Fire and Eaton Fire on the city&rsquo;s outskirts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist obtained a memo from October 2024, in which Nichole Bosson &mdash; medical director for L.A. County EMS &mdash; urges first responders to scale back the use of IV fluid due to a &ldquo;current shortage in sterile fluid.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Bosson urged firefighters and medics to consider the following for &ldquo;prehospital intravenous fluid resuscitation&rdquo;: Withhold IV fluid unless a patient shows &ldquo;signs of poor perfusion requiring immediate intravenous therapy,&rdquo; withhold IV fluid from asymptomatic patients with hyperglycemia or arrhythmia, give fluids orally to dehydrated patients, and reduce one&rsquo;s fluid loss with drugs and temperature management.  &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While this leaves just a few ambulances spread across the city, carrying expired medication, the LAFD has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on DEI-related issues. It spent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/la-county-cut-fire-budget-while-spending-heavily-dei-woke-items-midnight-stroll-transgender-cafe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$100,000<\/a> on celebrating Juneteenth, another $100,000 on a &ldquo;Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe,&rdquo; and more than $14,000 on the &ldquo;Gay Men&rsquo;s Chorus of Los Angeles.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Logan Washburn is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-clark-county-keeps-commercial-addresses-on-voter-rolls\/\" title=\"Lawsuit: Clark County Keeps Commercial Addresses On Voter Rolls\">staff writer covering election integrity<\/a>. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo&#8217;s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wildfires in Los Angeles are straining resources, including expired medications for paramedics. This issue isn&#8217;t new; the LAFD reportedly provided expired drugs last year, citing supply shortages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":2390190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Truck_LAFD_West_Hollywood_July_2023.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[48500,46236,36585,14057],"class_list":["post-2390189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-expired-medications","tag-healthcare-ethics","tag-los-angeles","tag-whistleblower"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Truck_LAFD_West_Hollywood_July_2023.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2390189"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390193,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390189\/revisions\/2390193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2390190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2390189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2390189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2390189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}