(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Fewer gunshot victims, stabbing victims and not as many heart attacks.
Emergency rooms — at least downstate — aren’t what they used to be.
WBBM’s Steve Miller reports.
Before COVID-19, Dr. Paul Pedersen, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, says ERs in his hometown of Bloomington used to be different than they are now.
"We’re just not seeing the number of people having heart attacks, and that’s probably because they’re not doing some of the things they shouldn’t have been doing,” he said this week. “Like going out to eat and eating all that salt and ham and everything else that tends to increase their risk factors.”
Dr. Pedersen says some people who might otherwise go to the ER for, say, a sore hand are not going now because they’re afraid of being exposed to coronavirus.
But he says the ER is not something you want to avoid if you’re having a heart attack.