Since COVID, more young people are dying of heart attacks. Here’s what we know

When Demi Washington, a basketball player at Vanderbilt University came down with COVID-19 in late 2020, her symptoms were mild, just a runny nose. But to ensure her safe return to the court, the school required her to undergo an MRI.

The results brought Washington to tears.

Following the infection, the now college senior had developed myocarditis — when the heart muscle becomes inflamed, which can decrease the heart’s ability to pump blood. The condition can lead to stroke or heart attack, according to Mayo Clinic. Washington was not vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time.

“I was scared because any internal organ, you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I need that to live,'” she recalled to TODAY. “I didn’t really know what was going to come of it, how long was it going to take for it to resolve.”

ashington had to skip the rest of the 2020 to 2021 season, but ultimately she was grateful. “I think about the fact that Vanderbilt does do the MRI and a lot of other schools didn’t,” she told TODAY in a segment aired Feb. 9. “The fact that I could have played if we didn’t is hard and scary to think about.”

Washington’s doctor never told her that she was at risk of dying, but he did stress the importance of rest and keeping her heart rate under a certain pace. She had to wear a watch to track her activity. Even though COVID was especially new at the time, Washington said her doctor felt confident her condition was due to the coronavirus, as he’d seen something similar other college athletes.

Washington said she felt no symptoms or signs that her heart had become inflamed, nor did she have a genetic predisposition. “It (just) happened to be me,” she said. “I still don’t really know why.”

Washington has since recovered and is back to playing ball. But her experience sheds light on the thousands of young adults infected with COVID-19 whose health hasn’t rebounded as successfully.

COVID-19, heart attacks and young people
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, heart attack deaths across all age groups have become more common in the U.S., according to a September 2022 study by Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles.