A certain type of heart attack is on the rise around the world. Healthcare professionals in Scotland have seen a sharp uptick in a potentially fatal type of heart attack called an N-STEMI attack. This condition is the result of partially blocked arteries that cut off the blood supply to the heart. It presents less tissue damage than a regular STEMI attack but can be equally fatal. Stents are put into the person’s arteries to save their life.
While cases of STEMI attacks have remained stable for years, at about 750 cases per year, cases of N-STEMI have spiked recently. Doctors from Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank recorded a consistent 25 percent rise in N-STEMI heart attacks over the summer.
This hospital typically receives 240 N-STEMI patients a month, but during the months of May, June and July, the number of N-STEMI heart attack patients climbed to over 300 people per month.
Locking Populations Down And Stripping Their Livelihoods Causes Severe Side Effects
Cardiac patients have been pouring into the Golden Jubilee National Hospital from all over the National Health Services grid, from NHS Greater Glasgow, to Clyde, Dumfries and Galloway, to Ayrshire and Arran, Forth Valley and the Highlands.
Over the summer, the hospital had to increase its number of cardiology beds by 44 percent, as front line healthcare workers dealt with an increased demand of heart attack patients.
Doctors are trying to determine why there is such a sharp uptick for N-STEMI attacks. During the lockdowns, people had less access to health checks and were more likely to stay away from hospitals if they didn’t have respiratory symptoms. Mitchell Lindsay, a lead consultant cardiologist at Golden Jubilee National, said they can’t find “any evidence” that the rise in N-STEMI attacks “is a consequence of any delayed care or missed opportunity.”
There was not a similar rise in heart attacks during the first two waves of lock down. The doctors believe that people became more sedentary during the past two years of lock down and were unable to cope with all the new stressors imposed by the lockdowns.
They also believe many patients ignored heart attack symptoms during the lockdowns because they did not want to show up at a hospital and risk being infected and separated from their family. “There are probably five to ten causes, all linked,” said Lindsay.
