In literally the last second, the life-saving cancer operation of an Upper Austrian was canceled – the intensive care unit was full of COVID patients.
Thomas Peter Stadlbauer (46) was already fully prepared for the long-planned, difficult cancer operation that was supposed to save his life. But on the way to the operating room, the Upper Austrian had to turn back.
“I was already on the way to the OP-Gwandl. A doctor came and she explained to me in an incredibly friendly and friendly manner that the operation unfortunately cannot take place,” said Stadlbauer in an interview with “Today”.
The reason: Immediately before his operation, the last intensive care bed in Vienna’s Hanusch Hospital was occupied by a COVID patient. This meant that there was no longer any free bed for Stadlbauer.
Respect to the doctors
Stadlbauer was released from the hospital and sent home. “What is important to me, because it is above all right, is the fact that I have the greatest respect for the doctors, as well as for the entire hospital staff,” said Stadlbauer in a letter to friends.
“They do everything humanly possible to make necessary operations possible. But if there is no intensive care bed available for serious operations afterwards, then none of this is of any use.”
But even in this unimaginably difficult situation, Stadlbauer still showed greatness. “I wish everyone a speedy recovery and a full recovery,” he said to the COVID patients.
“But I don’t have any more time, because only an operation and the intensive care unit can prolong my life, since there is no other therapy,” emphasizes the former office manager of the Upper Austrian Environment Council Stefan Kaineder (Greens) the drama of his current life situation.
“It’s about whether I can see my children grow up”
Stadlbauer wanted to get rid of even more. “Getting vaccinated for work so as not to endanger colleagues or clients is impossible for many. But that’s not a problem for vacation – and it doesn’t matter how well tested a vaccine is, because you need a yellow fever vaccination for the vacation trip (with no idea what it is and how it has been tested), but the corona vaccination, which has been administered billions of times, is simply rejected. And we all need it – for ourselves and others. But many do not care, who unmasked at demos shout out, “he writes the frustration from his soul.
And of course he is angry, because there are hardly any vaccinated people in the intensive care units. “And I wouldn’t have to be in the situation I am in now if more people were to be vaccinated,” says Stadlbauer.
“But I don’t care, because it’s about my life and whether I can see my children grow up,” said Stadlbauer. The Upper Austrian is just becoming a father for the third time and only got married on Friday. He already had cancer surgery in 2018. “All internal organs were affected. I had to learn to walk again after the operation,” he says “Today”.
Return a shock to the kids
His return on Wednesday came as a shock for his children (9 and 12 years old). “They asked me what I was doing there. And then of course they were worried.” Because time is ticking, if Stadlbauer does not have an operation soon, the chances of a cure are slim.
“I’m on stand-by now. But I have to get an appointment by Christmas,” says Stadlbauer, who wants to keep fighting.
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