I caution all of us against getting up on the high horse. I don't think any of us do all that we could in the battle against disease and suffering. The coronavirus is the big deal right now, but disease and suffering never take a break.
Elktonnick said he has been going to spring training each year for the last few years, I believe. Couldn't the money he spent on that have been put to better use by donating it to cancer research? The same goes for anyone who spends money watching baseball. I think that takes in just about all of us.
Is this really the case though? The surgery was performed at the Kerlan-Jobe Institute, where what they do is orthopedic and sports-related medicine.
What resources of theirs are actually going to be called on in the coronavirus fight? Do they have anything that can't be obtained elsewhere and in a more cost-efficient way?
I don't know the answer to those questions, just posing them.
But is it all about money? Pitching is what these guys for a career. And it's a short career to begin with. Putting off the surgery will make it even shorter.
As an accountant in 'public practice', most of the time I wouldn't describe my job as boring. I'd describe it as hectic, stressful, frustrating, maddening, and, sometimes, rewarding.
Right. But maybe we should be looking at this more from the hospital's side. They were probably very keen to do this surgery and get paid for it. They could probably use the money.
But as 700hitter suggested, the word 'emergency' is subject to interpretation. Most of the people who show up at the emergency department of hospitals are not in life-threatening situations, but they get treated.
A hospital spokesperson said Syndergaard's TJS was essential surgery. If people want to question that hospital's definition, then have at them.
If Syndergaard's surgery should not have been performed, the hospital and the surgeons are as much at fault as he is, if not more. They could have said no.
Perhaps because the Astros took it a new level with the decoding and garbage can banging from the dugout, while other teams were decoding and signaling from the basepaths, which has been going on forever.
Another key statement from that article I linked this morning:
A spokesperson for The Hospital for Special Surgery in Florida where Syndergaard’s surgery will take place told the paper: “The procedure in question—acute ligament injury with progressively worsening ulnar nerve symptoms—is defined as essential care.”
The crux of this is what is defined as "essential".