‘Where are all our patients?’: Covid phobia is keeping people with serious heart symptoms away from ERs
Stayc Simpson’s blood pressure readings are all over the place. Her heart rate is fluctuating wildly. After struggling with heart failure and coronary artery disease for 15 years, undergoing a double bypass, and living with an implanted pacemaker and defibrillator, she knows her numbers aren’t good. She’s really worried. But fears about infection with the novel coronavirus, and a terrifying recent experience in an emergency room, have her steadfastly refusing to return to the hospital.
“At what point do I think it’s OK to go to the ER?” asked the Miami resident. “I just don’t know. If there were no Covid, there’s no question I’d go.”
