Normand Meunier, a quadriplegic man in Quebec, sought assisted suicide after he developed bed sores due to a lack of specialized care at a hospital in Saint-Jérôme, Que.
According to Radio-Canada, who originally reported the story, Meunier’s arms and legs had been paralyzed since 2022 after experiencing a spinal cord injury.
In the article, his partner Sylvie Brosseau said Meunier spent 95 hours on a stretcher while in intensive care for a respiratory virus.
According to Brosseau, he was in the emergency room for four days.
When Bosseau advocated for Meunier to receive a specialized bed, she was apparently told that the hospital would have to order one.
Due to not receiving a specialized bed and spending those days on a hospital cot, Meunier developed bed sores and a major pressure ulcer on his buttocks to the point where muscle and bone were exposed and visible.
The hospital told Radio-Canada they are investigating the incident but have beds available at the hospital.
Meunier had experienced bedsores before and was undergoing treatment for his wounds, but he opted for assisted suicide instead of dealing with the physical and psychological suffering.
“I don’t want to be a burden. At any rate, the medical opinions say I won’t be a burden for long; as the old folks say, it’s better to kick the can.” Meunier told Radio-Canada in an interview a day before dying.
True North reached out to Dr. Stefanie Green a medical assistance in dying professional and an advocate for Canadian access to assisted suicide.
“This is not/should not be/ought not to be hijacked to be a conversation about MAiD,” Green said in an email to True North. “This story is about a major failing at an ER that left a man ill. That terrible mistake should not reflect on the cardiology service at the hospital down the road, the GI service in another city, or the country’s MAiD program (or the price of rice in Beijing for that matter).”
Krista Carr, the executive vice-president of Inclusion Canada, a disabled people rights advocacy group, spoke to True North over the phone.
“It’s just a terrible testament to where things have gotten to in our society that we would think death provided by the state would be an acceptable solution to alleviating the ‘suffering’ of people with disabilities,” Carr said. “We know there are thousands of people with disabilities in this country who, when they have access to the right supports, live really good, happy, healthy, and positive lives.”
Carr advocates for better quality and more access to social services, which if funded properly, she believes would steer many people living with disabilities away from accessing assisted suicide.
“(Meunier’s) case is particularly tragic because it resulted in certainly significant harm to the individual and family, but also in a death that should never have had to happen,” she said. “When we first brought in our MAiD legislation in Canada, it was for people who were terminally ill. It was for people who were suffering intolerably whose death was reasonably foreseeable.”
She said after 2021, with Bill C-7, the government expanded the assisted suicide system to include what’s called “track 2” which includes people who are suffering intolerably and whose death was not reasonably foreseeable.
She said the difference between the two tracks is that the first track is for people who are trying to “escape a painful death,” whereas “track 2 MAiD” is often for those trying to “escape a painful life.”
“The intolerable suffering (of many living with disabilities) is not being caused by the disability.” Carr said. “It’s caused by how society limits, excludes and doesn’t give them the support that they need to live a life on par with other people.”
In 2021, the year assisted suicide was expanded to include those whose deaths were not “reasonably foreseeable,” 223 people died under the newly expanded legislation. In 2022, 463 people whose deaths were not foreseeable died using assisted suicide, growing the number of deaths by 1.3% annually.
Data for 2023 has not been publicly released at this time.
Carr said in the case of Meunier in Quebec, it could have been avoidable if he received the “proper healthcare he deserved.”
“When someone with a disability accesses MAiD if you don’t think somebody somewhere with a pencil knows how much less that’s going to cost to support that person,” Carr said. We’re not going to get better services. Already underfunded, under-available, non-adequate, non-inclusive services will only get worse.”
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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