shockedcanadian
Diamond Member
- Aug 6, 2012
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This in Canada alone. In Ontario a couple of weeks ago the leadership admitted direct result of the virus resulted in 35 people being dead that wouldn't have been with proper care in normal times. We can probably multiply that number as needed.
āSacrificed in the name of COVID patientsā: Tens of thousands affected by surgery cancellations
Jim Mann recites the numbers without hesitation: he had 19 tests and seven meetings during a marathon week of screening at a Toronto hospital in March.
The reward at the end was nothing less than a new chance at life, a spot on the facilityās lung transplantation list as emphysema cuts his own lungsā capacity by almost 75 per cent.
Then just days later, the University Health Network called to inform him everything was on hold. Mann knew he still had to wait for a matching organ from a deceased donor. But Ontarioās cancellation of āelectiveā surgeries to ready for a feared surge of COVID-19 patients meant nothing could be done for him until the restrictions were lifted.
āItās very heartbreaking, to be honest,ā says Mann, a retired home-renovation salesman from Niagara Falls. āItās definitely worrisome. Iām only 65 years old.ā
Heās part of an overlooked fall-out from the pandemic lockdown ā the thousands of Canadians whose treatments have been delayed for close to two months already and could be postponed for weeks more.
Almost 200,000 surgeries and other procedures, cancer screening tests and clinical trials of experimental medicines were shelved indefinitely as hospitals braced for a possible flood of COVID-19 patients. A deluge that never quite materialized.
Meanwhile, many hospitals have sat barely half-full.
Doctors and patient advocates say the dramatic, overnight retooling of the nationās health-care system, luckily, didnāt trigger a tsunami of deaths or other bad outcomes for non-COVID patients, thanks largely to careful planning.
But there is evidence of negative impacts nonetheless.
āSacrificed in the name of COVID patientsā: Tens of thousands affected by surgery cancellations
Jim Mann recites the numbers without hesitation: he had 19 tests and seven meetings during a marathon week of screening at a Toronto hospital in March.
The reward at the end was nothing less than a new chance at life, a spot on the facilityās lung transplantation list as emphysema cuts his own lungsā capacity by almost 75 per cent.
Then just days later, the University Health Network called to inform him everything was on hold. Mann knew he still had to wait for a matching organ from a deceased donor. But Ontarioās cancellation of āelectiveā surgeries to ready for a feared surge of COVID-19 patients meant nothing could be done for him until the restrictions were lifted.
āItās very heartbreaking, to be honest,ā says Mann, a retired home-renovation salesman from Niagara Falls. āItās definitely worrisome. Iām only 65 years old.ā
Heās part of an overlooked fall-out from the pandemic lockdown ā the thousands of Canadians whose treatments have been delayed for close to two months already and could be postponed for weeks more.
Almost 200,000 surgeries and other procedures, cancer screening tests and clinical trials of experimental medicines were shelved indefinitely as hospitals braced for a possible flood of COVID-19 patients. A deluge that never quite materialized.
Meanwhile, many hospitals have sat barely half-full.
Doctors and patient advocates say the dramatic, overnight retooling of the nationās health-care system, luckily, didnāt trigger a tsunami of deaths or other bad outcomes for non-COVID patients, thanks largely to careful planning.
But there is evidence of negative impacts nonetheless.