As Texas braces for the inevitable rise of COVID-19 cases, the Governor issued an order prohibiting elective surgeries, and that included performing abortions. A Federal Judge has issued an injunction on that ban on Constitutional grounds.
But it made me wonder about other so-called elective surgeries. What about the patient awaiting a cancer surgery, heart bypass, dental root canal; is that elective, if it’s not an emergency? Can it be postponed for a few more weeks or months? Where is the line on essential? Who makes the call? We have bureaucrats making so many of these decisions, under guidelines based on best models from medical professionals who have become bureaucrats themselves.
The hands-on doctors; the ones who are treating patients for every malady outside of and including COVID-19, still have the specter of pandemic clouding every encounter, with patients and with accompanying families. How best to treat and how to protect patients and themselves from the added onslaught of this novel virus? What can each of us do to help, or stay out of the way?
We’re all in this learning curve now.