Club CoMorb

We’ve heard a lot about COVID patients with comorbidities in the last while. Alberta’s government has shared data on how many people who have died from COVID also had comorbidities. An Alberta MP went so far as to point out that only ten people with no co-morbidities have died…

As if comorbidities were something rare in Alberta.

There you are, saying, “GREAT!” as you count yourself among the “non-comorbid.”

Here’s the thing.

My husband would have counted himself among those with no comorbidities back in late November 2003.  He had just had a physical and was given a clean bill of health.

On December 3^rd, he had a heart attack at the age of 49, entering a club that, in our COVID19 world, has become just a little more undesirable.

The club is not as exclusive as you might think.  On November 20^th, our Chief Medical Officer of Health told Albertans a little about comorbidities. It became clearer that if not us, many we love, may belong to Club Co-Morb.

Dr. Hinshaw said that having a chronic medical condition is quite common, with nearly a quarter of Albertans over 20 living with a medical condition. (Almost 800,000 people) Ten percent of Albertans have two conditions, and eight percent have three or more—conditions like hypertension, heart disease and diabetes.

Hypertension is found in 87 percent of Albertans who died of COVID19. Almost 70 percent of Albertan men over 65 have high blood pressure. (My hubby, the moustache guy, is in this group)

Having comorbidities does not equal “at death’s door.”

The moustache guy is an active Grandpa, goes hiking in our nearby Rocky Mountains, and often helps our kids out with household projects.

This project left him with some handy equipment…perhaps he can get us some groceries?

The moustache, and the man it’s attached to, have a lot of living to do. Chances are you know someone with a comorbidity that doesn’t show. It’s misleading to see “the person who died had co-morbidities” and discount the risk of COVID.

Canadians with diabetes are hardly a fragile group and include current hockey players like Max Domi and past players like Bobby Clarke. There are diabetics across the athlete spectrum.

Juno award-winning singer George Canyon is a popular fellow here in High River. He performed at a local drive-in concert with Aaron Pritchett this summer to raise money for the High River District Health Care Foundation.

George has Type 1 Diabetes.

All you need to know is this. The person who died has people who miss them. That’s all we, the public, should be focusing on here. Unless, of course, you have high blood pressure, diabetes and the like, then you should probably take extra precautions.

But so should everyone else, really.

Let’s take care of each other.

Dr. Hinshaw also recently reminded us that “Severe outcomes are not limited to those already at the end of their lives, and it’s a mistake to think so. About one in four people who need to be hospitalized and one in six who are in ICU do not have any pre-existing medical conditions.”

Dr. Raj Bhardwaj, a Calgary physician, seconds Dr. Hinshaw’s thoughts and says those statistics don’t tell the whole story. He says that some of the most common comorbidities in those who have died of COVID19 are conditions that hundreds of thousands of Albertans have. Bhardwaj says the cases and deaths should not be just statistics, either.

“People die of COVID19, not of their comorbidities.” Dr. Bhardwaj went on to say, “If you’re crossing the street and somebody hits you with their car, we don’t say, ‘Oh, it’s okay, that person had diabetes.’ It’s the car hitting you that kills you.” (via Jordan Kanygin CTV News Calgary)

COVID19 is the car; when it hits you, it could kill you.

“We can’t let the numbers dehumanize the people who are dying here – the friends and the family members who are dying of COVID” ~ Dr. Raj Bhardwaj November 2020