Heart Foundation warns: Never hesitate if you suspect a heart attack, but call 911 immediately – even on Christmas, New Year’s Day and during the Corona wave. The reluctance to call emergency services because of curious glances from neighbors or because one does not want to be a burden on the hospitals: Emergency physicians know all too well the reasons for fatal life-threatening hesitation on the part of emergency patients with suspected heart attacks or other cardiac emergencies such as malignant cardiac arrhythmias. The holidays around Christmas and New Year’s, as well as the Corona lockdown, are likely to increase this inhibition against calling 911.
Many people are currently unsettled and worried: hospitalized during the Corona pandemic? Don’t! “A fatal error that can cost lives in the worst case,” warns heart specialist Prof. Thomas Voigtländer, MD, vice chairman of the board of the German Heart Foundation. Because every minute counts in a cardiac emergency. “The current high numbers of corona infections must not lead to people shying away from the vital emergency call 112 or the trip to the emergency outpatient clinic when they suspect a heart attack or have other emergency-like symptoms, as they did in the spring: either out of fear of infection with the corona virus or because of feared capacity bottlenecks in the clinics,” said the cardiologist and intensive care physician at the Cardioangiologisches Centrum Bethanien (CCB) Frankfurt a. M., Germany.
Myocardial infarction and other cardiac emergencies: Unpredictable events for the clinic
Cardiovascular complications may increase especially around Christmas time, a study (1) from before Corona suggests. According to the study, the pre-Christmas stress and excitement of the Christmas holidays do not pass every heart without a trace. “The study results suggest an increased risk of heart attack on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day – especially in people who are over 75 or already chronically ill,” Voigtländer explains. Patients with risk factors such as diabetes and coronary heart disease have an increased susceptibility. Your heart is particularly sensitive to risk factors such as stress. For many people, worry and fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 certainly come into play in times of Corona. This can also manifest itself in the form of stress.
Christmas holidays and heart attacks: hospitals are prepared
Rescue service control centers, cardiac emergency outpatient departments (Chest Pain Units/CPUs) and hospital emergency rooms are also on standby around the clock on public holidays, between the years as well as on weekends or at night – even during the second Corona wave. The holidays around Christmas and New Year’s and high Covid 19 infection rates should not cause people with suspected life-threatening events, such as heart attacks, to forgo life-saving measures. “Don’t hesitate. Dial 911 and clearly express the suspicion of a heart attack so that an ambulance with an emergency physician can be sent,” intensive care physicians appeal. “The emergency physician is so important here because the heart attack can go into ventricular fibrillation at any time and the patient can die of sudden cardiac death in a matter of minutes.”
Correctly interpret heart attack symptoms
A typical heart attack symptom is sudden onset of severe burning and pressing pain that lasts longer than five minutes and does not improve with rest. The pain is predominantly felt in the chest, often behind the breastbone, sometimes only in the back between the shoulder blades or in the upper abdomen. The pain may radiate to the arm, neck or jaw. Other infarct-typical alarm signs include:
- Tightness in the chest (“elephant on the chest”)
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea
- Cold sweat
- Unrest
- Fear
- Paleness
Heart patients should take an increase in symptoms such as shortness of breath especially seriously, because symptoms of heart disease can closely resemble symptoms of Covid-19.
Literature:
1. Mohammad MA, et al: Christmas, national holidays, sporting events, and time factors as triggers of acute myocardial infarction: SWEDEHEART observational study 1998-2013; BMJ 2018;363:k4811 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k4811https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k4811
