Patients with heart conditions need to be more careful during pandemic

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Heart Disease patients must be even more careful during the pandemic.

“It’s a very stressful situation constantly worrying does this person have COVID, am I going to catch COVID, what is it going to be like for me because sometimes it seems like there’s no rhyme or reason on who can get very ill, and who can recover really well from COVID-19,” says Mary Coco who is battling heart disease.

Coco was first diagnosed with heart failure when she was only 30 years old. As a 10 year survivor she, like many others with a heart condition, wants to protect herself as much as possible.

A heart condition can be found in anyone, ages 3-years old to 87 so everyone with a heart condition is currently eligible to get the vaccine, despite being high for COVID-19 complications.

“Vaccination is ultimately important in preventing you from having even the slightest increased risk of developing prolonged effects on their heart, but also if you do develop an infection and do have some cardiovascular dysfunction already; it will make it a lot worse,” says Dr. Antoine Keller who is Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Baton Rouge General.

Exercising, eating healthy and getting routine check-ups will keep you well and your heart healthy.

Baton Rouge General will be doing a free heart murmur screening on February 22 for ages 60 and older.

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