TRENTON, NJ – When Governor Phil Murphy knew an impending lockdown was coming, he made sure he got his malignant kidney tumor removed before announcing a halt of elective surgeries in the Garden State. Now, with the possibility of a second moratorium on elective surgery looming as COVID-19 cases spike, Murphy explained why he did it before the lockdown.
“You know, one of the options or one of the levers that we pulled in the spring was elective surgery, but all options remain on the table,” Murphy said. “And by the way, you hear elective surgery and you think someone’s going to get a nose job or something. I had a malignant tumor on my kidney and was told if I had been a week later that would have been deemed to be elective. So when we say elective, it’s basically, Judy and Ed, everything except your life is on the line at that moment. But all options would have to remain on the table. We cannot allow our healthcare system to get overrun. It did not in the spring. We stared at the abyss but we did not fall into it, and we cannot at any cost.”
At the same meeting, Murphy gave an alarming overview of New Jersey’s immediate future.
“However, while the numbers of new cases are what provides the shock values for the headlines, and they should, it is the numbers in our hospitals, which are of the greatest concern and the hardest numbers, if you will, when it comes to determining the steps that we need to take as a state. The metrics in our hospitals, and their ability by the way to ensure treatment for those who need it, are the greatest indicators of our on the ground realities,” Murphy said.
With a second shut down looming, that could possibly last through February or March, it might be a good time to schedule your elective surgery before that happens, unless you can grin and bear your condition through the spring.
Photo by Richard Catabay, Unsplash