FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 18, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 25
Elmhurst Hospital’s Go Red for Women Day event
helps bring awareness to women’s heart health
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Elmhurst Hospital, the epicenter of
the COVID-19 pandemic, held a strictly
socially distanced Go Red for Women
Day event as part of American Heart
Month on Friday, Feb. 5.
Employees were encouraged to wear
red, the signature color of Heart Month
representing heart health, and in return
received a red face mask from the
Women’s Concerns Committee-Joint
Labor Management. World Central
Kitchen, which also supplies hot meals
to frontline workers at 15 public hospitals
in New York City, serving 30,000
meals a day, provided a few thousand
heart-healthy Santa Fe salads low in
sodium and cholesterol with a choice of
chicken or tofu to
staff in the hospital
lobby.
Th e American
Heart Association
launched Go Red
for Women Day in
2004 to spread awareness
of heart disease.
According to a newly released
2021 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics
by the association, cardiovascular disease
remains the number one killer of
women. Heart disease and stroke cause
one in three deaths of women each
year, according to the American Heart
Association – killing more women than
all forms of cancer combined. Every 80
seconds, a woman dies from the disease.
Cardiologist Dr. Deborah Reynolds
explained that women oft en present
non-classical heart-attack symptoms
that can include extreme fatigue, shortness
of breath, indigestion, and pain
or pressure in the lower chest or upper
abdomen. Her department works very
closely with emergency and internal
medicine to evaluate those symptoms in
female patients and run a battery of tests
to determine if the symptoms are related
to heart disease.
“We take these symptoms very seriously
because people, regardless, want
to understand why did they change. And
we try to objectify that with testing,”
Reynolds said.
She reiterated that women
should see their doctor even
though they might feel
nervous because of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“In addition to emergency
hospital evaluation,
we have a robust
cardiology clinic that
sees thousands of people.
And we can provide
expedited testing, both
laboratory and imaging,”
Reynolds said.
She also noted that they
have observed heart disease
symptoms in COVID-19 patients that
range from traditional heart attacks to
heart rhythm issues and trouble walking.
“We are still learning what are the long
term eff ects of COVID,” Reynolds said.
“New York City Health and Hospitals
Corporation has developed a central
area of research that pools the data from
the facilities so we can publish research
faster this way.”
Because so many patients delayed
treatment during the height of the coronavirus
pandemic in the spring and
summer of 2020 — either because they
were afraid or the hospital system was
overburdened — her department has
seen an increase in patients.
“Since COVID has been stabilizing,
we are seeing many people come in
having their symptoms evaluated,” she
said. “We see a need for cardiology support
for not just heart attacks, but heart
weakness and irregular heartbeats.”
She encouraged patients to keep up
with their yearly check-ups and to seek
medical treatment if they display symptoms.
“I think particularly in women we put
up with things maybe a little bit longer,”
she said. “It’s scary to come to the hospital
now. But we want people to understand
that we take their safety very seriously,
and for that reason, we perform
the evaluation over a very short period
of time.”
health
Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
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