Lansing State Journal
LANSING As Michiganders fixated on rising COVID-19 infections and deaths in the state last spring, a second disturbing trend was developing: more people were dying of sudden cardiac arrest.
Michigan State University researchers and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services found increasing numbers of people dying of cardiac arrest without seeking medical care at a hospital or arriving too late in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, an area especially hit hard by the virus.
Sparrow Health System said it saw a similar trend and fears it is continuing.
Some patients have come in for care 24 hours to 48 hours after experiencing heart attack symptoms, said Dr. Joel Cohn, a cardiologist at the Sparrow Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute. According to the Mayo Clinic, heart attacks increase the risk of cardiac arrest cases and death if immediate medical treatment isn’t sought.
COVID-19 pandemic prompted a rise in cardiac arrest cases, deaths hollandsentinel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hollandsentinel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Need an expert for American Heart Month?
February is American Heart Month, a time to highlight the top cause of death in Americans: heart disease. This year, the American Heart Association is highlighting the “Don’t Die of Doubt” awareness campaign, which focuses on reminding people that, even during the pandemic, hospitals are the safest place to go when symptoms of heart disease crop up.
Included is a list of researchers with expertise on a variety of topics related to heart health, heart medicine research and more. For more experts, contact Zach Richardson, MSU public relations manager, at richa954@msu.edu.
Credit Steve Carmody / Michigan Radio
Cardiac arrests outside of hospitals went up by 60% during the first 10 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic over the same period the year before. And there was a 42% jump in deaths from cardiac arrests in the pre-hospital setting.
These were some of the findings of a study of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest records of the Emergency Service Information System in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties from March 23 through May 31, 2020.
Adam Oostema, M.D and associate professor of emergency medicine in the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, co-authored the study.
Oostema said the rise in cardiac arrests and related deaths outside of hospitals is probably due to factors directly and indirectly related to COVID-19.
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests increased during the pandemic
While COVID-19 has claimed more than 13,000 lives in Michigan, a study conducted by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Michigan State University published in JAMA Network Open, suggests that many more likely died from cardiac arrest directly and indirectly attributable to the pandemic.
The study examined out-of-hospital cardiac arrest records in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties from March 23 through May 31, 2020. The researchers compared those records to data for the same period in 2019 and found that the number of cardiac arrests that occurred outside of hospitals soared to 1,854 during the early months of the pandemic, a 60 percent increase over the same period the year before. Deaths from cardiac arrest also increased to 1,400 cases, a 42 percent jump from the previous year.