Sudden Death among Medical Professionals: How to Reverse this Trend?

Sudden Deaths among Medical Professionals?

One of the most important reasons is overwork, stress, lack of physical activity, and lack of regular health checkups. Young and middle-aged doctors are in a critical period of their family and professional career development. Not only do they hope to make breakthroughs in clinical services as well as academic research, but they also face pressure from patients and their families [1, 2, 3]. The escalation of contradictions between doctors and patients has also become an increasing mental burden in the practice of many medical professionals. Middle-aged doctors have heavy familial responsibilities, such as paying the bank loan for medical/ophthalmic practice, supporting parents, rearing children, and making mortgage payments, which cause them to work harder (six to seven days in a week) without any breaks. Deteriorated working environment, serious violence against doctors, and decreased patient–physician trust also intensified the sense of “stress/burnout” in doctors. Male medical professionals, especially in a surgical specialty and operative care, have larger overloads and longer working hours, which may be the primary cause of death. Besides, incorrect stress relief manners also affect doctors’ heaths, such as excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, and long-term energy drink consumption. Lack of exercise and obesity also increase the risk of acute myocardial infarction and stroke. Medical professionals [1, 2, 3] usually neglect regular medical checkups themselves, which results in some potential diseases not being timely detected, such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hyperuricemia, etc.

Cancer has figured prominently in the Indian Medical Association study as a causative agent for premature death among medical professionals [4]. However, a direct relationship between doctors’ premature death and cancer needs to be examined more precisely through well- conducted studies. Theoretically, medical professionals are exposed to various occupational and environmental factors that may increase cancer risk. Doctors are a unique group of individuals who are routinely exposed to multiple carcinogens, such as ionizing radiation and various chemicals. Exposure to high doses of diagnostic and therapeutic ionizing radiation is known to increase the incidence of various cancers, like those of the thyroid and the ovary. The high Incidence of differentiated thyroid cancers among doctors specialized in various disciplines of radiology is testimony to this. Even young residents in the specialty are reported to be associated with a higher incidence of cancers. Besides radiation and chemicals, the other factor known to cause cancer among doctors is stress itself. Stress caused by a heavy workload, burnout syndrome, compassion fatigue, and chronic sleep deprivation can cause cancer. In addition to cardiac ailments, and cancer, suicide among Indian doctors is a concern and remain one of the important cause of sudden death among medical students/residents and young medical professionals. The medical profession is considered more stressful, but mental health is still a subject of taboo in the medical profession in the Indian context. Medical professionals have a higher suicide risk, 2.5 times more than the general population [4, 5].

COVID-19 Vaccine & Heart Attack

While the COVID-19 vaccines are saving lives, some side effects related to heart has been reported. According to a paper published in open-access scientific journal MDPI, until now, more than 670 million people have suffered from COVID-19 worldwide, and roughly 7 million death cases were attributed to COVID-19 [4]. The association of heart disease, especially myocarditis with COVID vaccine is still being evaluated. There has been some evidence of this association especially in young people after the second dose of vaccine but that risk is overall small as compared to the potential benefits of vaccination.