Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Autopsy Report Of First COVID-19 Death In U.S. Shows Woman Had Massive Heart Attack
Politico: First Recorded Covid Death In U.S. Was From Massive Heart Attack, Autopsy Says
A Santa Clara County woman who is the earliest recorded death from Covid-19 in the United States died of a massive heart attack, according to an autopsy conducted by the county's medical examiner and obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. The 57-year-old woman, who died Feb. 6, had evidence of the coronavirus infection in her heart, trachea, lungs and intestines, according to an autopsy report posted Saturday by the Chronicle that was completed Feb. 7, but not signed until April 23. (Kahn, 4/25)
ABC News: In The 'Epicenter Of The Epicenter,' Were Early Heart Attacks A Missed Coronavirus Warning?
New York City officially earned the grim distinction of becoming the nation's coronavirus epicenter on March 20, but city records analyzed by ABC News suggest a crisis swelling far earlier, signaled by a sudden uptick in cardiac arrest cases that experts now say were likely linked to the virus. Emergency calls for cardiac arrest began to climb in mid-February, in close-knit neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens, some of the same local areas that would soon form the "epicenter of the epicenter" of America's coronavirus pandemic. (Pezenik, Katersky, David and Dastmalchi, 4/27)
ABC News: 9 Ways Coronavirus Changed Treating Patients
The precipitous climb of COVID-19 has led to substantial changes in both the art and the science of medicine. Amid a global pandemic, doctors and nurses are learning how to practice medicine differently -- adjusting the way they use resources, perform procedures, interact with patients and families, utilize technology, and work with public health and scientific communities for a common mission. (Taghipour and Kumar, 4/26)
