Death due to Cardiac Arrest in a Young Female With Highly Suspected COVID-19: A Case Report

Mohamed, Sherif; Abo El-Hassan, Osama; Rizk, Magda; Ismail, Jumana H; Baioumy, Aml

Despite the common clinical presentations of the pandemic coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) being well-known, there remain issues on its atypical or rare presentations. Moreover, despite the known risk factors for severe COVID-19 are cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic lung disease, and advanced age, still younger patients suffer from this disease. Herein, we present a case report of a 28-year-old female patient who was presented to the ED with cardiac arrest, then died within 12 hours. First swab testing by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) came negative. However, she has typical CT features of COVID-19 pneumonia, along with an echocardiographic picture of acute cor pulmonale. Though it is rare, cardiac arrest can happen in young apparently healthy patients with COVID-19. As COVID-19 patients are commonly having clotting disorders, endothelial and organ dysfunction, coagulopathy, and liable for pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE), it is important to select those COVID-19 patients who are at higher risk of PTE, and practice CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) for the diagnosis of PTE, especially in case of significant increase of D-dimer values.