Multiple threads by EternalVigilance and me.
It's been more than a week since pastor Joshua Kulendran Mayandy has been given food or water at a Brampton, Canada, hospital where he is being treated for a brain impairment following a heart attack.
The medical facility's officials are following a determination that he will get his next sustenance only when he can ask the doctor for it.
The Sri Lankan Mayandy, who arrived in Canada 10 years ago to pastor a small church, complained of chest pain and was hospitalized after collapsing with a heart attack May 29.
He was revived successfully, although the apparent brain damage from the attack left him in a coma for a time. He was placed in intensive care where he regained consciousness. An eyewitness has reported he has regained movement in his arms and legs and that he recognizes the family he is living with.
According to Bernard Stephenson, another local pastor and friend who visits Mayandy daily, the injured man can speak some words.
But staff with Brampton Civic Hospital, which is part of the William Osler Health Center, disagree. According to Stephenson, doctors asserted all along that there was no hope of recovery.
The disagreement over his condition and capacity triggered in Ontario the involvement of the region's "Consent and Capacity" board, which by law determines the proper medical treatment for patients unable to make decisions themselves...
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) has launched a letter-writing campaign in a bid to stop what it says is the unjust treatment of a disabled patient at Brampton Civic Hospital.
EPC is urging residents to file letters en masse after the Consent and Capacity Board, an independent provincial tribunal whose mandate, in part, is to determine a persons capacity to consent to or refuse medical treatment, gave a public guardian power of attorney over Kulendran (Joshua) Mayandy, a 48-year-old pastor who acquired a cognitive disability after suffering a heart attack in May.
Doctors have determined there is no hope of recovery and suggested all life-sustaining treatment be removed. But without family members or appointed legal guardian in Canada, the Consent and Capacity Board placed the fate of the Sri Lankan native, a Pentecostal pastor at Humberlea Worship Centre in Etobicoke, in the hands of a Substitute Decision Maker (SDM).
This SDM, in turn, agreed with authorities that no special efforts should be made to prolong Mayandys life and on Aug. 17 gave doctors at Brampton the go-ahead to withdraw intravenous hydration and nutrition to speed up his death.
However, EPC members have condemned the decision on the basis that it contradicts Mayandys Christian beliefs. Christians are generally opposed to the idea of interfering with the natural process of death. Other than the fact that Joshua is cognitively disabled, he is otherwise healthy and could possibly live many years in this condition, states Alex Schadenberg, executive director of EPC-Canada. This is not a case when hydration and nutrition need to be withdrawn because he is actually dying and nearing death, but rather the decision appears to have been made to intentionally cause his death by withdrawing IV hydration and nutrition because he is unlikely to recover from his disability.
Society cannot condone intentionally dehydrating a person to death because of their disability or the potential cost of long-term care, he said. Hospital officials have refrained from offering up specific details on the matter, stating patient confidentially limits them on what they can disclose publicly.
However, William Osler Health System, which runs Brampton Civic Hospital stressed everyone involved in the patients care is in agreement with his treatment plan.
The treatment plan being followed for him has been determined to be medically in the best interests of Pastor Mayandy, reads a statement prepared by William Osler on the matter. It was developed according to Ontario law and with the input and oversight of the patients Substitute Decision Maker and their lawyer, as well as the patients independent lawyer. The course of care is clearly described in an Order of the Ontario governments Consent and Capacity Board.
Mayandys family, who live in Sri Lanka, and his supporters here, reject that notion, Schadenberg said. The fact that Joshua did not write down his personal wishes or assign a person to make legal and health care decisions on his behalf in these circumstances, does not negate the fact based on his religious convictions it is unlikely that he would have agreed to death by dehydration, writes Schadenberg in a blog post at http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com.
The EPC says Mayandy, who has been living with a Brampton family for the last 10 years, was admitted to Brampton Civic after collapsing in front of the emergency department on May 29.
He was revived, but sustained a significant brain injury and fell into a coma.
He was placed in the intensive care unit (ICU) and remained there until regaining the ability to breathe on his own, at which time he was transferred to the respiratory ward where he still remains, according to EPC.
The group says Mayandy emerged from the coma and regained some ability to communicate...
Thank you to everyone who has done something to help Pastor Joshua (Kulendran Mayandy). If you have not followed the story closely, the article that was printed in the Brampton Guardian is included with this email.After meetings yesteday with our legal counsel, several doctors and a lawyer from the Christian Legal Fellowship, a major breakthrough happened today. The court appointed Substitute Decision Maker (SDM) has given permission for a nurse, who is a member of the Church, to feed Joshua orally.
Today Joshua was fed orally and I was told it went very well.
We thank the SDM for this wise decision but we remain cautious. This is incredible news but we recognize that an opposite decision may be made at any time.
The decision on August 13, 2010 by the Consent and Capacity Board stated:
"If the attending physician determines that his condition sufficiently improves to the point that aggressive care becomes appropriate, and proposes such treatments, nothing precludes (the SDM) from consenting to same."
Now that Joshua has proven that he is capable of swallowing while being orally fed, how can anyone deny him this basic necessity of life?
The final hope is that Joshua will get the opportunity to recover.
"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."
Thanks for the good news. We were due for some good news. Overdue actually. Tears of joy here.
Thread by me.
A group of medical specialists is speaking out against euthanasia ahead of a Quebec-wide consultation on the controversial practice, warning that previous attempts at legislation elsewhere in the world have failed.
A provincial legislature committee is scheduled to travel to 11 Quebec cities in the fall to consult with the public on the polarizing practice, in which patients with terminal diseases request a doctor's help to die.
Quebec's Federation of Medical Specialists has already publicly supported government legislation on euthanasia for "exceptional circumstances," stating the practice already happens across the province.
But a handful of Montreal-based medical specialists cautions the government about regulation.
"I think that ultimately, we're going to go down a slippery slope, where eventually, what patients purport to want, which is autonomy of decision-making, will be lost," said Paola Diadori, a pediatric neurologist at the St-Justine Hospital.
"Patients need care. And we need to be responsible for providing the care that they need. I don't think that it's good medicine to have physicians end these people's lives.
"That's not caring for them. That's basically just getting rid of a person."
Diadori was among a group of specialists who gathered Wednesday night in St-Bruno, on Montreal's South Shore, for a public meeting.
Some doctors are concerned that the eventual legalization of euthanasia will ultimately sour relations between physicians and patients.
"What's going to happen is by euthanasia, we give doctors the power to kill," said José Morais, a geriatrics specialist. "I think there are consequences to that. Patients would start thinking, or questioning the intentions of their doctors."
Proper palliative care can be adequate for terminal patients, Morais added.
Doctors at the meetings are concerned the public is not properly informed about the practice, and are concerned people will support legislation without knowing all the facts.
"It could work for a while, but then it will be trivialized, and that is the slippery slope," warned Dr. Joseph Ayoub, a Montreal oncologist in palliative care. "We've seen that happen in Holland."
Committee hearings on euthanasia were held in early 2010 at the national assembly in Quebec City, resulting in a consultation document called "Dying with Dignity." The document will be used in public hearings this fall that that start Sept. 7. Liberal national assembly member Geoff Kelley is heading the commission.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal in Canada.
bump
“he will get his next sustenance only when he can ask the doctor for it.”
SO EVIL AND WRONG!!!!!!!!
If you advocate for such insane policies, does it ever cross your mind
that you might be the victim of such cruelty???