Pictured above, l. to r. are Cleghorn, Yousaf and Chu. See video below of entire message.
The Coroner is sending a message to the public to keep your regular doctor appointments – and if you are sick, don’t wait to get medical help – because you’d rather see that doctor than the coroner.
Saline County Coroner Kevin Cleghorn is also the President of the Arkansas Coroners Association, and he wants to get the word to the public that people are dying due to not keeping their chronic disease in check. He said he has had multiple conversations with other coroners in the state and they have found the common statistic that non-covid patients with underlying conditions are skipping doctor visits because they are afraid of getting COVID-19. Ultimately, some of those patients are ending up in the hospital or worse, dying because they didn’t manage their disease by keeping the doctor updated and keeping their prescription medicines filled.
Dr. Ahmad Yousaf, Medical Director of the Intensive Care Unit at Saline Memorial Hospital, along with Dr. Mark Chu, Family Physician at Family Practice Associates, were also present at a small gathering for this public service announcement on Monday.
“The best thing you can do if you are ill is to go see a doctor,” stated Dr. Yousaf. He said the hospital created a protocol to ensure COVID-19 patients are separate from others.
Dr. Chu urged the use of telemedicine to check with your doctor and keep your chronic disease, like heart disease, lung diseases, diabetes or others under control. “In our office, we’ve trained our staff… to help patients when they do call. If they have trouble logging in or getting to the website, we can give them some basics of where they need to be,” said Chu. “So they can get that visit, see you, treat you, and hopefully, keep you out of the hands of these two,” he said, referring to the ICU and the Coroner.
See the video below for the entire message.