The Philippine Heart Association said it will continue to ensure efficient emergency care in hospitals for patients of cardiovascular disease.
During the PHA’s Usapang Puso sa Puso dubed “Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and COVID: A Toxic Mix,” Dr. Luigi Pierre Segundo, communications committee co-chairperson, said it is still safe to have oneself checked by a heart doctor whether in a private or government-run hospital despite COVID-19 cases.
He said it is not right to think that hospitals are not ready to treat and admit emergency cases of CVD because they are either fully occupied or a breeding ground for the COVID-19 transmission.
He warned that heart ailment is still the no. 1 killer in the world, “which is three times bigger than COVID-19.”
Dr. Eric Oliver Sison, a PHA member in the National Capital Region and from the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, said “time is the essence. There are other ways to do so as not to delay the treatment of a CVD patient.”
Another PHA member from Mindanao’s Mercy Community Hospital, Dr. John Daniel Ramos, raised alarm that “heart attack comes like a thief in the night.”
The heart doctors said the number of doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff infected with COVID-19 has dramatically dwindled with some who got infected only experiencing mild and asymptomatic cases.
A damaged heart muscle or blocked heart arteries increases the risk of a person having severe COVID-19 infection, Sison said.
“We have learned a lot on how to protect our medical staff and patients as well. There has been a big change,” he noted.
“It pays to know your numbers. Go for regular check-ups. If you are due for an elective procedure, don’t keep on rescheduling it. Have it done now that it is much safer to go to the hospital before it’s too late,” Segundo urged.