Hennepin Healthcare Warns of Heart Attack Risk Clearing Heavy Snow
After the Twin Cities saw its heaviest snowfall of the winter over Sunday night, residents were busy digging out their driveways on Monday morning.
Zack Hammonds, a Brooklyn Park resident, cleared the waterlogged snow with a shovel.
“It’s a little too heavy,” he said. “It’s getting your heart pumping, that’s for sure — it’s not easy on the back.”
The cleanup is difficult work that takes a physical toll.
“I mean, they call it ‘heart attack snow’ for a reason,” said New Hope resident Jared Eamon as he slogged away at the nearly six inches of snow covering his driveway.
The increase in snowfall brings with it an increase of a more concerning variety.
Felicia Ikebude, a nurse practitioner at Hennepin Healthcare‘s Brooklyn Park location, says they often see an increase in emergency visits after a heavy snowfall.
Hennepin Healthcare sees an increase in emergency visits due to injuries sustained after a large snowfall. “There are high incidents of people coming in with chest pain, heaviness of the heart and all that,” said Felicia Ikebude, a nurse practitioner at Hennepin Healthcare’s Brooklyn Park location.
“There are high incidents of people coming in with chest pain, heaviness of the heart and all that,” she said. “Chest pressure and heart attacks.”
She says the strain of shoveling or snow blowing can put be dangerous, particularly for those with pre-existing heart conditions.
Those conditions could range from high blood pressure and obesity to heart valve replacement, Ikebude said.
“It works the heart a little bit more than normal, and then the blood pressure rises,” she said. “The heart rate rises. There’s a constriction of the coronary artery, which causes less blood supply to the heart, and that leads to possible cardiac attack or cardiac arrest.”
She recommended anyone with pre-existing conditions take a slow approach to cleanup.
“Caution is the key word,” she said. “Being intentional, taking it slowly, and asking for help. If you think you have a heart condition and you can do it, you ask for help.”
