ER director: Don’t sit at home and have a heart attack

Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, people aren’t any healthier now than, say, at this time last year. But due to the virus and efforts to slow its spread, you might think so.

Area hospitals have seen a drop in people seeking medical care in emergency rooms for fear of infection. At Ascension Seton in Kyle, ER visits had dropped by 60 percent at one point, according to Dr. Christopher Zieball,

medical director of the emergency department at Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas.

“People have been delaying coming in for chest pains and end up sitting home having heart attacks,” he said. In a Thursday phone interview with the Hays Free Press, he said he saw a patient Wednesday “with stroke symptoms that started on Saturday.”