With hospitals becoming overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, choices have to be made. Who will be treated first? If there aren’t enough ventilators for everyone, which patients will get one, and which won’t? This is a difficult conversation to have. Unfortunately, many places are putting policies in place which devalue the lives of people with chronic illnesses.
Part of the rationale is that people with certain medical conditions will take more care than people who are otherwise healthy. I understand that spending 10x more hours on 1 patient means that others will receive less care. Another part of the rationale is that the focus should people in the patients with the greatest potential health outcomes. If the choice is between saving the life of someone who is 70 or saving the life of someone who is 30, this reasoning says the 30-year-old should be saved because they are likely to live longer than the 70-year-old would, even if both recover fully. And if two 30-year-olds need treatment, one with a chronic illness and one without, the guidelines say to treat the one without chronic illness first. In fact, a ventilator may be taken away from the chronically ill patient and given to the otherwise healthy patient!
This is where these conversations often quickly devolve into which lives are most “worth” saving, both amongst policy makers and amongst everyone else. I have a lot of issues with this. Yes, I have chronic illnesses. Yes, my care could be more complicated than the care for someone who has no chronic illnesses. But does that make my life less worth saving? Does that make me a less valuable person?
In the chronic illness world, we say that our productivity does not determine our worth. That is so true. I’m biased, of course, but I think my life has a lot of value. I have not had a full time job in more than 8 years but, contrary to what many believe, that does not mean that I haven’t contributed to society in that time.
On a smaller scale, I am a good friend and daughter. I provide advice, let loved ones cry on my shoulder, celebrate good times, and more. I also do volunteer work in formal settings and provide help to many people in informal ways. (So many friends and friends of friends have sought my advice on how to approach doctors, how to research health problems, or even how to fix a computer problem. Earlier this month I even helped a couple of friends do their taxes.) I have written a book about chronic illnesses, I stop to hold open the door for strangers (pre-pandemic, that is), and I do random acts of kindness (like when a kid at the convenience store could afford the food he’d picked up, so I paid the balance – again, pre-pandemic.) I write this blog, which I believe helps people. Does it change the world? No. Does it change some tiny part of it? I hope so.
Why is all of this considered to be worth nothing simply because I don’t have a job? Infuriatingly, people are arguing that’s the case.
And what if you can’t do any of the above? Your life still has value, and you deserve to be treated as such. These are just examples from my own life. I’m sure you can offer your own examples, past, present, or aspiring to in the future.
What’s more, why should someone be treated as “better” because they are “healthy” and work full time regardless of other factors? Is a CEO who earns millions while harming others somehow superior? What about people who are racist or homophobic but work full time? What about people who steal or assault others? What about those who are just plain mean? Why is working at a job so often a litmus test, while these other factors are completely ignored.
To be clear, I am not suggesting that patients must pass tests to prove they are “good” people before receiving treatment. I am simply pointing out that there are many factors that *could* be used when the conversation turns to who is most “worth” saving, yet so often people talk about folks who receive government benefits and who do not work at jobs as having less perceived value. This hurts. They are saying that I have less value. They are saying that people I care about have less value. They are saying that we should be allowed to die so that someone else might be saved, and that this choice is being made solely due to our having chronic illnesses.
That is why I am standing up today to say that I have value. And so do you.
Chronic Rants 
I have spent years trying to unlearn the societal assumption that productivity, especially that which earns money, discerns worth. Logically I know it doesn’t, but with our society it is almost impossible not to feel this way. And now it’s even harder to remember that we have worth when it’s clear most people don’t think we do.
Yes, I completely agree. That’s why I think it’s important for us to keep repeating it to each other. We’re not getting that message from society in general, so we need to perpetuate it within chronic illness circles. 😦
Thank you, you are valued too.
The UK is exactly the same. Never mind the fact that it would be tough to survive covid 19 being ill, knowing that your at the bottom of a list for people to save is even worse. I am of for my infusion tomorrow at my local hospital. It is the only place I go at the moment. Last time I was in a room on my own so fingers crossed.
Hugs xx
Oh, good luck tomorrow Lorna! I hope you can get your own room again! And I agree, it’s a real double whammy to know we’re more likely to need help and less likely to get it.