Critically ill COVID-19 patients commonly experience cardiac arrest and their outcomes after cardiopulmonary resuscitation tend to be poor, a new study shows.
The study, published in The BMJ, includes data for more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients at 68 U.S. hospitals. The patients had been admitted to the intensive care unit.
Researchers found 14 percent suffered a cardiac arrest within two weeks of being admitted to the ICU. They also found older patients, Black patients and those at hospitals with fewer ICU beds were more likely to experience cardiac arrest.
The study shows 57.1 percent of patients received CPR, including a third of patients older than 80. Only 12 percent of the patients who received CPR survived.
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