Key takeaways:
- ‘This is a surgery to keep my life,’ says a Montreal-area man whose heart surgery was delayed.
- François Shalom, 67, realised this week his heart surgery planned for later in January was delayed indefinitely.
- Hospitals that were already working through a backlog of surgeries from the earlier pandemic are again encountering difficult judgments.
Hospitals encountering surgery delays due to the pandemic:
François Shalom completed cancer treatment just weeks ere the COVID-19 pandemic fell in March 2020.
At the moment, Shalom sensed like he’d escaped a bullet. Surgeries and medical procedures were delayed in Quebec in the weeks that ensued to ready for a climb in hospitalizations.
But the previous summer, the 67-year-old from Pierrefonds, Que., knew he had a genetic heart defect. He was told by doctors his main heart valve is dripping and requires to be substituted.
Also read: Quebec hospitals are devastated and it’s only going to get more flawed
Shalom was planning to have surgery at the end of January at Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital but realised this week it had been delayed indefinitely.
“It’s petrifying,” he stated in an interview. “My life is at stake here. This is not a facelift that I’m staying for. This is surgery to save my life.” Source – cbc.ca
Faced with a wave in hospitalizations, Quebec and other regions, including neighbouring Ontario, have once again given directives to cut back non-urgent surgeries to free up beds and teams. This week, Quebec reported almost 2,000 patients in hospital with COVID for the foremost time since the beginning of the pandemic.
