(Elizabeth Payne, Blair Crawford/ The Ottawa Citizen) — Just weeks after learning she had an aggressive form of breast cancer, an Ottawa woman has received more shattering news: Her surgery to remove that cancer has been postponed.
The 51-year-old public health professional with the federal government is one of up to 10,000 people a week who are expected to have surgeries cancelled as Ontario copes with an unprecedented wave of the Omicron variant.
Cancelling or postponing surgeries is seen as a desperate measure to keep the health system operating amid rising COVID-19 hospitalizations and staff shortages as the highly transmissible variant races through the community.
But the Ottawa woman, who has asked to be identified only as Sherry, and others say cancer surgeries should never be postponed in order to lessen the pressure on the health system. (…)