Sudden Cardiac Arrest at the Triage of Emergency Medicine Department in a Patient With COVID-19

Altuwaijri, Fawaz; Alotaibi, Omar

A pneumonia outbreak with an unknown microbial etiology was reported in Wuhan, Hubei province of China, on December 31, 2019. This was later attributed to a novel coronavirus, currently called as severe acute respiratory system coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mainly affects the respiratory system and can also cause acute or chronic damage to the cardiovascular system. We present a case of a 64-year-old female with past medical history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension who presented to the Emergency Medicine Department with shortness of breath and worsening chest discomfort, then had a ventricular fibrillation (VF) arrest while in triage, in the context of COVID-19 diagnosis. Cardiovascular complications during the COVID-19 pandemic should be brought to medical attention; it is crucial that physicians be aware of the complications and treat it as an emergency.