When the hospital postponed her surgery because of coronavirus, she worried the cancer would spread
Sheriff Alex Villanueva confirmed the change in plans on Twitter, saying Gov. Gavin Newsom would determine what qualifies as a nonessential business. “Hospitals are being urged to postpone as many elective procedures as they can without causing harm to any individual,” said Jan Emerson-Shea of the California Hospital Association.
“California has no hard and fast rules, but basically [the question is], can an individual go two to three months, perhaps, without a procedure, or will that cause any harm?” Emerson-Shea said she understands these are tough choices for hospitals and doctors, but she added that the term “elective” needs to be clarified.Emerson-Shea didn’t want to speculate on the best protocol for Vandermey or any other patient. Hospitals are making case-by-case decisions and doing their best, she said, to make tough judgments about which treatments can safely be delayed in order to prepare for “this unprecedented crisis.” Dr. Robert Cherry, chief medical and quality officer at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, said each surgical unit is constantly reviewing which operations should go ahead as scheduled and which can be delayed so that beds and medical gear are conserved. That can involve tough calls, because one thing we do know about coronavirus is that it has the potential to spread rapidly. “We are now [at] anywhere from 35% to 40% of our normal surgical volume,” Cherry said, a slowdown designed in case of a need to accommodate a crush of very sick patients. But among the procedures going forward as planned, Cherry said, are surgeries for cancer and cardiovascular disease.When I called Vandermey’s doctor, he said he wasn’t at liberty to speak about her case. A Kaiser Permanente spokesperson sent me a response stating that Kaiser doctors “are clinically evaluating all elective procedures scheduled for the next few weeks to determine those that can be safely postponed. These may include select cancer surgeries.” The statement went on to say that “national societies are recommending delaying many types of cancer surgery, in part because of evidence of serious complications from COVID-19 after surgery.” I can understand the hospital’s point of view. Kaiser, like other hospitals and like the general public, is trying to navigate these scary, uncertain times. But I also can’t imagine what it would be like to be in Vandermey’s position, worried about the spread of cancer at a time when so much else is unsettling in the world. When I drove out to see Vandermey Tuesday afternoon, the rocket scientist was on a break and walked down to the bottom of her driveway to meet with me. We spoke from a virus-safe distance of 15 feet or so.Her surgery is now scheduled for Thursday. She expects to be back at work in a couple of weeks, and that’s a good thing. There’s a lot of the universe left to explore.
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