Some cancer patients are angry that athletes, including Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale, are having elective surgery while theirs have been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale went under the knife in Los Angeles to repair the ligaments in his throwing arm.

A few days earlier, on March 24, Shelly Stevens had been scheduled to be on the operating table in Boston for the removal of a mass from her left lung.

But on March 15, Gov. Charlie Baker had ordered hospitals to postpone or cancel all "nonessential elective procedures" to free up resources, such as protective gear, for treating COVID-19 patients. Three days later, Stevens got a call from her surgeon at Mass General, saying they had to postpone the surgery for four weeks, if not more.

After some anger and tears, Stevens accepted her delay, calling it the "right decision." She didn't want to infect anyone, nor did she want to get infected with the highly contagious disease.

But the Brewster woman said she was angered by Sale's surgery as discussions began about the ethics of his "Tommy John" procedure during the global pandemic, when protective equipment for health care workers and testing kits are in short supply.

Now, as the country tries to fight the spread of the virus, Sale is recovering from his surgery while Stevens is fighting the potential spread of cancer inside her lungs.

"(My doctor) said, 'Its not that your (procedure) isnt urgent, or that its not important, but with everything going on, for your own health and safety, the best thing we can do would be to wait,'" said Stevens, 51. "He said they don't have the equipment or staff that they need and that exposing me to the virus would be very detrimental."

Nonessential, elective procedures, as defined by the state Department of Public Health, include, but are not limited to, incision of the skin, orthopedic surgery, endoscopy, oral procedures and podiatric procedures.

The department defines "elective" and "nonessential" as procedures scheduled in advance, since they do not involve a medical emergency. The state recommends providers use their clinical judgment on a case-by-case basis, and the order does not apply to life-sustaining care.

While this is what Baker ordered and what the American College of Surgeons has recommended governors elsewhere, including in California, have issued different orders or none at all regarding canceling elective surgeries during the pandemic.

Sale isn't the only athlete having elective surgery during the pandemic. San Francisco Giants pitcher Tyler Beede had arm surgery last week, and Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard is scheduled to have it Thursday, according to USA Today.

Although Sale was treated in a private clinic, people took to social media to argue that his surgery used protective equipment that could have been routed toward hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.

"People in Los Angeles were begging for people to bring in masks, gloves, gowns, face masks, and here (Sale) is having surgery that could have waited," said Stevens. "My sister-in-law is a nurse in New York ... and they were given one face mask to wear for an entire week, so it just really made me angry."

Stevens was first diagnosed with cancer in 2010 when doctors found it in her hand. Her type is called leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that affects smooth muscle tissue.

Surgeons removed it, but after years of frequent CT scans, doctors found masses in her lungs in November 2018. She underwent more surgery and radiation. About a year later, doctors found a small spot in her lungs. When she returned in February for a follow-up scan, her doctors determined the mass had grown.

Surgery was scheduled. But then COVID-19 reached new levels.

"Every day I wake up and I'm scared. I don't know what's going on inside of my body," Stevens said. "You kind of feel like someone is holding a gun to your head and (you wonder) when are they gonna pull the trigger. Every little ache, every pain, every bump, you think, 'Is this more cancer?' "

Stevens has four daughters from 15 to 20 years old who have been helping her, along with her husband, Ryan. She has started a gratitude journal, in which she writes every night before bed. Tuesday night's topic was the Red Sox.

"Last night I had to try to get over being angry at these baseball players. It's not anything personal. ... but it's something I had to let go of."

The pandemic has had similar implications for another Brewster woman, Raquel Ellis, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in February after visiting the Dana-Farber cancer center in Weymouth. Her double mastectomy was scheduled for April 30, but it has been postponed.

Overall, Ellis said she's been coping. "I live with two teenage boys, so we kind of deal with everything with a lot of humor and silliness," she said.

More than her health, she's worried about how her delayed surgery will affect her ability to take her eldest son to college and teach her students at Ezra Baker Elementary School in Dennis in the fall. "In some ways, those are bigger losses for me," she said.

Her doctors concluded the cancer is related to her hormones, so they started her on hormone blockers to prevent further cancer growth as she awaits surgery. They also told her the mass won't kill her, but she's still eager to get it out.

"It's that feeling of knowing it's there and just wanting to get rid of it because it doesn't belong," she said.

Ellis didn't know much about Sale and the other athletes until her friend, Stevens, shared articles on Facebook, but she now agrees it might not have been a responsible decision.

"I was told (my doctors) don't want to do surgery right now because they don't want to bring a healthy person into a hospital and get them infected," Ellis said. "So it really doesn't make sense whether you're a professional athlete or a teacher or an electrician, that the standards would be any different for a human being."

Sale's surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, told the San Fransisco Chronicle, "I know that I'm going to get criticized for taking care of these kinds of guys, but it's essential to their livelihoods."

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Nonessential surgery? It depends on who needs it - Wicked Local

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