Some emergency rooms sit empty in pandemic. ‘Where are all the heart attacks?’

Doctors have said that they’re seeing fewer people in emergency rooms for life-threatening conditions, including heart attacks, possibly due to the fear of getting infected with coronavirus, media outlets reported.

Dr. Comilla Sasson, an emergency medicine physician in Denver, told NBC News that she told a patient who was experiencing heart attack symptoms to go to the hospital. The patient told her: “I would rather die than risk getting coronavirus right now.”

Doctors are worrying that people with life-threatening conditions are delaying or forgoing treatment altogether, according to NBC.

“You know, you ask any (Emergency Department) provider right now who is not experiencing a COVID surge yet and we’re like, ‘where are all the patients?’ ” Vice President of Emergency Services for Ascension Dr. Allison Bollinger told Fox17. “You know, where are all the heart attacks and strokes that we were seeing? Where are all the appendicitis patients? Where did they all go?”

At St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Chief Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Evelio Rodriguez told Fox17 that their hospitals have 40 percent fewer patients than usual.

“Heart attacks and strokes don’t stop; they don’t notice a pandemic. We want to make sure, if you are having those symptoms, that you still do the same that you would have done before,” Rodriguez said, according to Fox17. According to Rodriguez, those who do come in have more advanced symptoms.

Harlan M. Krumholz, who works at Yale New Haven Hospital, said she and fellow cardiologists say their cardiology consultations have decreased, according to The New York Times.

A Twitter poll showed that nearly half of respondents from a community of cardiologists said they’re seeing 40 percent to 60 percent fewer people admit to having heart attacks, according to New York Times.

Doctors in Hong Kong wrote in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes that patients with heart attack symptoms delayed getting treatment, according to the letter.

“It is understandable that people are reluctant to go to a hospital during the COVID-19 outbreak, which explains the potential delays in seeking care,” they wrote.

This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Some emergency rooms sit empty in pandemic. ‘Where are all the heart attacks?’."