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Why did so many New Yorkers with COVID-19 wait until it was too late to call an ambulance?
Many patients were from ZIP codes where underlying health issues are common, but experts think many also didn't know how sick they really were. (1/7) #NBCNewsThreads https://nbcnews.to/34XEVxr
Many patients were from ZIP codes where underlying health issues are common, but experts think many also didn't know how sick they really were. (1/7) #NBCNewsThreads https://nbcnews.to/34XEVxr
@NBCNews reviewed data from EMS showing that the number of calls for patients whose hearts have stopped or are near death has spiked since the beginning of the pandemic, as has the number of those calls that end in death. (2/7)
The surge is particularly noticeable in the city's poorest neighborhoods where people are more likely to have underlying conditions that can make coronavirus infection lethal.
They also may be wary of seeking health care until an emergency arises because of the cost. (3/7)
They also may be wary of seeking health care until an emergency arises because of the cost. (3/7)
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, an assistant professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and Dr. Eili Klein, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Department of Emergency Medicine, say other factors also fed the spike in cardiac calls. (4/7)
"This virus has come into our society and simply exposed the structural weaknesses and the inequities and the disparities that were already there,” Vasan says. (5/7) https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/why-did-so-many-new-yorkers-covid-19-wait-until-n1190111?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
As doctors' understanding of the disease improved, they discovered that many patients had greatly diminished lung capacity long before they displayed those serious symptoms that were supposed to make them call 911. (6/7)
"People are at home with these really low oxygen levels," Vasan says, "and then they hit that tipping point, and it just gets beyond the point of return — in the case of this data, the point of cardiac arrest." (7/7) https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/why-did-so-many-new-yorkers-covid-19-wait-until-n1190111?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
