DENVER — People who choose to delay getting medical treatment could miss out on potentially life-saving treatment. This is something care providers are seeing more of due to COVID-19.
Nick Tsipis, MD MP, an ER physician at Swedish Medical Center, has noticed some patients delay care because of their fear of COVID-19 exposure.
"Three examples come to mind for me, the first are strokes, we have these clot-busting drugs but they have to be given early," he explained.
Heart attacks and abdominal problems are the other examples.
"We've seen multiple cases of kids or young adults who have abdominal pain who wait and unfortunately it's appendicitis and once appendicitis becomes so significant the appendix can actually rupture and that causes a lot of problems," Tsipis said.
"One of the hardest things for us to see are patients suffering. We’re in this to help people, we’re in this to prevent and alleviate suffering," Tsipis said.
According to Tsipis, the risk of contracting COVID-19 at a hospital is very low.
"I consider us as safe if not safer than going to grocery store," Tsipis said. "We were your safe place before COVID-19 and we still are your safe place now."
Rhonda Ward, Vice President of Nursing at Centura Health, agrees. "It's really important to us that the community understands that we do have safety standards in place."
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