Elective surgeries cancelled as coronavirus spreads

NEW YORK, N.Y. (CBS Newspath) — One serious side effect of the coronavirus pandemic is that thousands of Americans who had surgeries scheduled are now being told they may need to wait weeks or months for their procedures.

Tim Libby knew right away something was very wrong when he woke up in the middle of the night. Libby said he was having some nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

He went to an Atlanta emergency room and was diagnosed with an inflamed appendix. Libby said that doctors told him that, for now, they would treat him with antibiotics and monitor him because elective surgeries have been canceled during the coronavirus. Libby said they told him: “Under any normal circumstances we would do this procedure right away and take your appendix out, but given the circumstances our strategy has changed.”

Hospitals across the country are canceling elective surgeries from knee replacements to cancer biopsies as the coronavirus spreads.

Dr. Ali Raja, executive vice chairman of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, says, “The recovery rooms that a lot of these elective surgeries need are actually going to be needed and are currently being used for patients with COVID.” According to Dr. Raja, not only does canceling these surgeries free up more beds, staff, and equipment for COVID patients, the measure protects vulnerable patients from being exposed to the coronavirus. He says, “I know that’s frustrating, but I have to tell you, this is really not the time that you actually, that you want to be in the hospital getting an elective surgery.”

Libby says doctors have advised that it may be 4 to 6 weeks before he gets his appendectomy. He says it’s a tough pill to swallow, but he understands why it’s necessary. “My pain is bearable and I’m overall healthy and I’m home,” he says. Libby says he’s willing to “leave that bed open for somebody who really needs it.”