Here goes, wish me luck :)
Corona virus or SARS 2.0 has received amazing attention. It is not really new, not really deadly (Justinian's Plague, anyone?), yet it received the most special treatment ever. We shut down our economy to protect those who are vulnerable to this virus, even though many of us are not. We shot ourselves in the foot for out fellow citizens. If someone gets the virus, they get amazing special treatment in the hospital with all the necessary doctors, nurses, ventilators and other medical equipment and supplies. It must feel like heaven to get this much attention for your illness.
Now, let us look at how Canadian healthcare and healthcare of other countries routinely deal with other illnesses. I will focus mostly on Canada though, and on the stories of family friends and acquaintances. A mother of one of my friends has atrial fibrillation, a heart condition, which has gone undiagnosed due to the laziness of her family doctor and the incompetence of her cardiologist, though it is clear as day and her activity trackers have detected it as well. A month ago, she had a very mild stroke, but a stroke nonetheless. No one cares and no one is doing anything about no matter how much she and her family plead with medical professionals to establish the diagnosis and put her on the right medication.
A family friend had the father of the family pass away a few years ago. He was in an assisted living facility in Toronto and a runaway pneumonia outbreak that was mishandled by the staff or that facility was the death of him. No special corona virus level measures were ever taken.
Another friend's mother went for a routine hernia surgery and was treated like trash when she has scratching and terrible pain weeks after, because the main surgeon refused to admit a mistake was made. Also, on her way out of the hospital, a careless nurse did not notice an IV was pulled out of her arm and my friend's mother bled right out of her arm vein and was begging for help. Meanwhile, those nurses we call champions get fatter, weaker and more full of themselves.
Speaking of nurses, I do not even know where to begin. A good friend of mine who finished getting his HR diploma a few years ago, he happened to have an instructor who was a great, professional and knowledgeable guy, yet he ran away from nurses. He was in HR in a major BC hospital, and after only a few years he had a mental breakdown after dealing with the nurses and their unions. The protectionism they enjoy has made not all, but most of them spoiled, fat with money and privileges, and too powerful for their own good and for our own good too. I am sorry if you know nurses and you disagree, maybe your nurse is different, but this is what really happens out there and I heard to many story so I will not back down!
Finally, I hear news about shootings and stabbings in Toronto, a city considered big by Canadian standards. Almost always I hear that gunshot or stabbing victims either die in the ambulance or at the hospital and it is a real shock to me! Why are the paramedics and doctors of a big city not trained to deal much better with these kinds of injuries?! It is a complete travesty.
Overall, dearest readers, I want to ask you what we should expect from our medical systems going forward. Should we ask for a more serious approach to all sorts of serious illnesses? Should we demand our nurses be fit and strong and up to the task? Should we demand respect as human beings in need when we are sick and injured and settle for nothing less? Should it finally be acceptable to tell sick people around us to keep away or else? I know my answers, but you tell me.
Once you are done reading my meaningful rant, please share other examples you know of when the medical system in Canada or your country failed you or someone you know, when they did not apply nearly the same care standards as they do to corona virus.
Stay safe out there, and thank you for reading as always :)