A Grieving Toronto man, who lost his wife to cancer recently, is now speaking out about the devastating toll that pandemic-related surgery cancellations are taking. “There are a lot of people dying of COVID-19, and a lot of people dying indirectly because of it,” he told local news channels last week, seeking anonymity to respect his deceased wife’s privacy. She was diagnosed with renal cancer and was awaiting surgery last year, as Ontario’s second COVID-19 wave continued to wreak havoc in the country. The 72-year-old woman’s operation was postponed five times—twice because she was too weak, and then due to the lack of ICU beds that were full with COVID-19 patients. He says he will never know for sure if the delay contributed to her death, but worries that many others find themselves in the same position.

On March 20, 2020, India’s central government directed hospitals and medical institutions to postpone non-essential elective surgeries [a procedure that can be scheduled in advance but is not necessarily optional] up to March 31, to reduce the risk of patients being exposed to the novel Coronavirus, and in turn infecting the surgical staff. The wait lasted till May 31. An international research consortium, which includes surgeons from multiple Indian institutions, estimated that around 5,05,800 non-emergency or benign surgeries, 51,100 cancer surgeries, and 27,700 obstetric surgeries could be delayed across the country during the three-month period before and after the peak. The CovidSurg Collaborative, a 77-country research initiative set up to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on surgeries, also estimated that over 28 million surgeries could be cancelled or delayed worldwide as a result of the pandemic.