Covid-19 Patients Have Higher Risk of Dying After Cardiac Arrest

A new study revealed that Coronavirus patients who suffer cardiac arrest have a higher possibility of dying in comparison to those who are not affected by the virus. Women especially have a nine times greater chance of expiring due to the same reason.

According to research published in the ‘European Heart Journal’, the study from Sweden involved 1946 people who had a cardiac arrest out of hospital (OHCA) and 1080 who suffered one in hospital (IHCA) between 1 January and 20 July.

During the Covid-19 phase of the study, the virus was involved in at least 10 per cent of all OHCAs and 16 per cent of IHCAs.

The Covid patients who had an OHCA had a 3.4-fold increased risk of dying within 30 days, while IHCA patients had a 2.3-fold increased risk of dying within 30 days. None of these patients had been walked out of the hospital alive by the time of October 2020. Several died and the rest were still being treated in hospital.

The study found that 7.6 per cent of pre-pandemic patients were still alive 30 days after suffering an OHCA. Once the pandemic started, 9.8 per cent of patients without Covid-19 and 4.7 per cent with Covid-19 survived for 30 days; 83.4 per cent of Covid-19 patients died within 24 hours.

Pre-pandemic, 36.4 per cent of IHCA patients survived for 30 days, but once the pandemic started 39.5 per cent of non-Covid-19 patients and 23.1 per cent of Covid-19 patients survived for 30 days; 60.5 per cent of Covid-19 patients died within 24 hours.