An average of two patients a day are dying of COVID at The University of Kansas Health System, with 22 so far in February. The health system is caring for 155 total COVID patients today, down from 165 yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 58 with active virus, 69 yesterday
- 17 in ICU, 18 yesterday
- 8 on ventilators, 6 yesterday
- 97 hospitalized but out of acute infection phase, 96 yesterday
Key points from today’s guests:
Dr. Travis Love, cardiologist, The University of Kansas Health System
- Broken Heart Syndrome is real. Formal name is stress cardiomyopathy, and is brought on by an adrenaline surge, usually within 3 to 5 days of an emotional event
- Cardiologists have been aware of this since the early 90s.
- Symptoms can be the same as a heart attack only without artery blockage
- No specific treatment, but patients recover in a couple of days to a couple of weeks
- 90% of patients are middle aged, postpartum women. Doctors not sure why
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer
- COVID numbers are down, but still a high rate of community transmission.
- By early March, could be time to relax mask mandates. Must pay close attention to the numbers after that.
- We will most likely have to learn to live with COVID, like we’ve learned to live with the flu
- “If we could let go of some of our fear around the vaccine, we could let go of some of our fear around COVID.”
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control
- Being fully vaccinated and boosted will allow you to participate in more activities as cases decline
- CDC prefers getting an mRNA vaccine after getting the J&J vaccine for the best protection
Monday, February 14 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. It's not just Valentine's day that men seem to forget. They forget anniversaries, birthdays and other things too. So the big question is why? And you can't blame this one on COVID. Psychologist Dr. Greg Nawalanic will help us figure it out.
ATTENTION: media procedure for joining:
Zoom link: https://kumc-ois.zoom.us/j/7828978628
Telephone Zoom link: 1-312-626-6799, meeting ID: 782 897 8628
TVU Grid link: UoK_Health_SDI
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YouTube.com/kuhospital
Send advance questions to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.
