We often hear about load shedding since the start of the pandemic, but its effects remain abstract. As hospitals face a critical lack of resources, The duty decided to put words and faces to statistics. Today, the stories of Robert and Mario.
This is not the first time that Robert Lachance has been the subject of a report. Many people still remember his great victory at the Traversée internationale du lac Saint-Jean in 1982.
Forty years later, the athlete, who now works in the business world, leads the second big competition of his life. However, the last kilometers are longer than expected. After being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in February 2021, he is awaiting the second surgery which will allow him to remove the stoma that had been placed in him temporarily.
“I was told that a few months after the chemotherapy, which ended in early September, I could expect to have the second procedure. I was told that it could be a nice Christmas present. “
But Mr. Lachance is still waiting for his meeting. “It is certain that with COVID-19, Omicron and the load shedding, my surgery is not a priority,” said the 64-year-old man. Others are in more painful situations than his, he will point out later in the interview.
“I don’t compare myself to someone who is waiting for orthopedic care or a major surgery. People who are waiting for hip or knee surgery and have pain, for example. “
For him, it is not a question of life and death: the first surgery having been a success, the disease is behind him. He just can’t wait to be able to fully enjoy his remission.
“I do not see myself as a victim, but I am impacted, he continues. I am a great athlete, I like to move, and I especially like swimming. Of course, with an ostomy, it limits a lot! “
Despite everything, Mr. Lachance takes things on the bright side. “I put my situation into perspective by telling myself that it could always be worse. […] It helps to get through, to have that attitude. Otherwise, it’s a negative spiral and it becomes an obsession. “
He tells himself that he has something to do: work, renovations in the house, walks outside with the dog. “I swallow the pill, but it sure is boring. “
Priority operation
For Mario Beauregard, the long-awaited operation is truly vital. Its a question of life or death. However, even if it will take place soon, it will be later than expected.
Three years after beating colon cancer and after six chemotherapy treatments, the 52-year-old must now treat a metastasis that has formed in the liver. He was due for the operation on January 18, but the hospital advised him that the operation was postponed until the 21.
Furious, and fearing another postponement of the operation, he displayed all his anger on Twitter. He said he was ready to “throw up on the non-vax”, challenging them to find him “a single argument” justifying that they take his place while “neglecting to take care of them and the people around them” .
As we can imagine: the answers rocketed in the camp of the unvaccinated. Mr. Beauregard says that he was written to have liver cancer because he had bad habits. “It made me laugh because we are a family of cyclists. We compete and we do more than 15 hours of cycling per week. We pay attention to our food. I take IPA from time to time, without excess. “His frustration was just there,” he explains. “I’m careful, but on the other side there are people who don’t give a damn about science. “
On Twitter, he was also written that the health system was “failing for a long time”, that the system is “in agony for moons”. Mr. Beauregard replied that he had observed clear differences between the care he received before COVID-19 for his cancer and that received recently.
“Three years ago, everything was perfectly fine. I felt the system was working really well. However, this is not what he felt two weeks ago, after having undergone an operation on an artery preparatory to the one that awaits him. After the operation, he says he waited 45 minutes in his room, with severe pain, before a nurse could free herself to come and see him. “We called the nurse and we were told she was coming soon. But she wasn’t coming. “