Pain wrenched Cheri Armstrong from her slumber. "I just shot up out of bed"

SEATTLE - Pain wrenched Cheri Armstrong from her slumber.

"I just shot up out of bed," said Armstrong, 69. "It wouldn't go away."

She thought the squeeze radiating between her shoulders was a muscle cramp. She twisted, walked and paced for about five minutes before it subsided.

Her husband, Richard Armstrong, urged her that April Saturday to go to the emergency room.

"The last place I'm going is a COVID-19 hospital," Cheri Armstrong remembers telling him.

The pain receded, only to spike sporadically over the next days - twinges of tightness. By Monday evening, though, it had worsened and migrated to her jaw.

"We're going to the emergency room," Richard said.

Doctors soon whisked her through tests and delivered the news Cheri suspected: She had suffered a heart attack.

"Her artery was about 99% blocked," said Dr. Daniel Guerra, a cardiologist at MultiCare Pulse Heart Institute in Tacoma. "She was lucky she didn't have a big heart attack."

Armstrong's story illustrates a growing concern.
Beginning in March, public officials told Washingtonians to avoid going to the hospital, if possible, fearing a surge of COVID-19 patients would overwhelm the system.

People stayed home, with nationwide outpatient visits dropping some 60% in early April, according to one estimate. Some feared they risked contracting COVID-19 at hospitals. The governor canceled elective surgeries statewide. Many mammograms and colonoscopies went on hold.

But in recent weeks, as case counts dropped and fears of a massive surge of COVID-19 patients diminished, a chorus of doctors, hospital executives and public officials have beseeched Washingtonians to return.

"Stroke, heart attacks, cancer, trauma, much more - all of this can and should be treated," said Gov. Jay Inslee in a news conference. "Time is of the essence."
Doctors suspect there's a backlog of pain, trauma and needed treatments.