CIDRAP Doctors and scientists are still working to understand why COVID-19 can cause fatal damage to so many different organs. A potentially major piece of that puzzle was revealed today in research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitalized patients who weren’t sick enough to be in the intensive care unit would suffer heart attacks and strokes, said William T. Bain, MD, a critical care pulmonologist at the University of Pittsburgh and the study’s senior author.
The deaths distressed and confounded clinicians, explained Bain. These patients didn’t seem to be in immediate danger. Occasionally, a heart attack or stroke happened in someone who appeared to be getting better, including those who seemed well enough to be sent home.