Please let us be careful how we emotionally react to this COVID-19 Pandemic. This is a true life story :

Painfully I lost one of my patients this week-end from Covid-19 related panic attack.
I practise Medicine in one of the countries mostly hit by this Covid-19 pandemic in Europe.

My patient was a 64 year old woman (let's calle her Mrs B) with underlying health challenges mostly psychiatric (anxiety-depressive disorders, potomania with mild cognitif impairment..), diabetic on insuline with a cardiac valvular disease (mitral insufficiency).
She had seen many healthcare workers putting on masks and gloves with unusual extra precautions which triggerd her anxiety. She became so worried after another patient complicated the situation telling her all sorts of scary things he had read and heard from the media and other news channels concerning the pandemic.
On Friday morning (20/03/20), the night nursing team informed me that the patient Mrs B sudenly woke up in the night around 2 am panting and screaming that she couldn't breath and that she was convinced she had Corona Virus. The nurse took her vitals and all were fine, she wasn't coughing and her oxygen saturation was 99% on air. She was reassured, calmed down and went back to sleep.
I then went to see her during my rounds and she immediately jumped up as soon as she saw me telling me how scared she was about the virus and all what she heard. I did a thorugh examination on her and nothing was abnormal clinically. I reassured her telling her the hospital taken all the necessary precautions to protect all patients and that she was in safe hands. She appeared very happy and settled. I prescribed an extra anxiolytic for her to be given when needed and she was very pleased.

On Saturday (I was on call this week-end) while preparing my dinner I got a call from the nurse on duty telling me to come over as they had a problem with Mrs B. I quickly dressed up and put off my burner in the kitchen and as I opened the door to ruch to the ward the nurse returned the call again and just informed me " I am sorry we've lost her...she is dead.."
I was shocked, arrived the ward quickly and was informed she had her dinner quite well and went to her room. Few minutes later she called out for help that she was panicky, panting and convinced she had corona virus became restless, turned pale and that was when the nurse rushed to call me. As she rushed to get the emergency trolley, on her coming back Mrs B suddenly collapsed, became cyanosed lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. That was how she lost her life.

Take home message : The best way to avoid this pandemic is social distancing, avoiding crowded environments, proper hygiene by regular hand washing with soap and water or using hand sanitizer if possible. Please keep away from people coughing or sneezing and if you can afford masks get them and use them especially if you are coughing. If you suspect from your symptoms you might be having this virus be calm and contact the NCDC thorugh the toll-free number given.
Avoid giving additional stress to your heart through panicking and anxiety as these make you release massive adrenaline in your system which go a long way to stress your heart and this may be very fatal especially if you arleady have underlying heart problems or uncontrolled hypertension.
Also, if you experience any of the respiratory symptoms, do self confinement for 14 days or till you are tested and cleared.
Please let us protect our parents, grand parents and all our loved elderly relatives who are the most vulnerable to the effects of Covid-19.
When we do all our best, we leave the rest to God prayerfully.

I wish all of us God's protection from this deadly virus and none of us will die before our God's appointed time IJN Amen !