This is what we've come to: woman with Stage 4 colon cancer has life-saving surgery postponed

This is about a Canadian woman in Ontario but don't think it couldn't happen in the US too.

The 30-year-old woman was diagnosed with colon cancer but her surgery is being postponed indefinitely and the way things are shaping up, it might be too late to save her life because the procedure keeps getting pushed back. 

Cassandra Di Maria was first diagnosed with colon cancer in 2019 and to date, she has undergone 17 rounds of chemotherapy.

"Now, I'm waiting on my next big surgery," she told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. "I have no idea when this surgery will happen and I'm at a standstill." [By "standstill" she is referring to the strong possibility that she will die before getting treatment.]

As is common with chemo, she was instructed by her doctors in late October that she had to stop treatment for a few weeks in order for her body to recover and be strong enough to handle the procedure which was then scheduled for December.

But in December, she received notice saying the surgery was being postponed to the following month and then that scheduled date was also cancelled.

In an e-mail viewed by CTV News Toronto, a representative from Mount Sinai Hospital told Di Maria her surgery was cancelled because of "the situation with COVID-19" and that "everything is getting cancelled at this point."

So she received no chemotherapy treatment and cancer doesn't take a time out for the Canadian government bureaucracy to pull its head out of its nether regions.

"I'm frustrated because I’m concerned about growth during the period I have been off chemo," she told the network. "The chances are very high of the cancer spreading further. I’m kind of stuck with what to do, unfortunately."

Actually, the chances the cancer is growing in her body is highly likely.

She said she understands the pressures the [Canadian] health-care system is facing but feels her urgent needs aren't being met and doesn’t understand why her cancer surgery isn't taking place.

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"COVID-19 patients are getting all the care right now and we're on the back burner, which is horrible," she said. "I would consider my surgery to be urgent, so I’m not really sure why it’s being affected."

It's being affected because COVID-19 is not just the sniffles or worse; it's politics.

Do not let this kind of triage tragedy happen in the U.S.

Please pass this on to raise awareness of the unnecessary suffering governments are putting on their people. 

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