It is time to discuss a very serious issue:

The notion of life-saving or life-ending triage has not been discussed in media since the invention of the dialysis machine when panels would decide who would be saved and who wouldn’t due to the lack of machinery and trained hospital staff. There was a multi-part Dr Kildare which dealt with this issue: the upshot being that an older man took himself out of the running so that a younger person could survive.

We apparently are going to be facing a situation wherein decisions will be made which are life-ending as a matter of course. As someone who is in the risk categories, three of them, I intellectually understand this but at the same time I don’t particularly wish to die.

But that’s how it is. That occurs during massive casualty events in wartime, both military and civilian. There is no choice but to decide where efforts can be made to save a life and where it may be either fruitless or that an older person has already lived a life whereas a younger one has not had the chance. It is horrifying but it is reality.

When I was young, many died from diseases or conditions which are relatively trivial today. Nowadays people are surprised when someone dies of any age. My 104 year old grandmother in law passed away some years ago and people’s reactions were fascinating: disbelief and shock. I asked them if they thought she was going to live to 300.

All that being said, we are in possibly for some very difficult times. It’s going to be rough no matter what.