LA County hospital responds to FOX 11 report of body bags placed outside

GARDENA, Calif. - The Los Angeles County hospital at the center of a FOX 11 investigation says it no longer has an overcrowding situation at its facilities.

After FOX 11 aired a report on Pipeline Health's Memorial Hospital of Gardena leaving body bags outside a temporary cooling unit, the hospital reached out to provide some additional context on how it has handled the deceased patients.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Images of body bags outside a LA County hospital raise questions on how deceased patients are handled

"The bodies that were briefly removed from the outside cooling unit Tuesday evening were re-bagged and promptly returned to the unit that evening," Pipeline Health explained in an email statement.

In Tuesday's FOX 11 investigative report, a security guard claimed they were asked to move the body bags outside, while other crew members cleaned up the outside cooling units and then put the bodies back in. FOX 11's Christina Gonzalez spoke to several people off-camera, who shared an identical description of the body bag situation.

In response to FOX 11's report, Pipeline Health explained the Gardena hospital on Wednesday successfully moved 13 deceased patients and thanked Los Angeles County and local mortuaries for helping make that possible.

"As of this evening, the hospital has 6 bodies on site, in the hospital’s morgue and in the temporary cooling unit outside. The hospital no longer has an overcrowding situation. Additionally, the hospital expects delivery of a larger cooling unit on Monday," Pipeline Health said in an email statement Wednesday.

Pipeline Health said the hospital has not been contacted by Cal-OSHA.

Get your top stories delivered daily! Sign up for FOX 11’s Fast 5 newsletter. And, get breaking news alerts in the FOX 11 News app. Download for iOS or Android.

Tune in to FOX 11 Los Angeles for the latest Southern California news.