Posted on 04/12/2024 11:02:50 AM PDT by jerod
'Whole story is a crying shame,' says advocate
On a Thursday in January, Normand Meunier arrived at the hospital in Saint-Jérôme, Que., with a respiratory virus. Weeks later, he would emerge with a severe bedsore that would eventually lead him to seek medical assistance in dying (MAID).
Meunier, 66, had been a truck driver before a spinal cord injury in 2022 left his arms and legs paralyzed.
Before being admitted to an intensive care bed for his third respiratory virus in three months this winter, Meunier was stuck on a stretcher in the emergency room for four days.
His partner, Sylvie Brosseau, says without having access to a special mattress, Meunier developed a major pressure sore on his buttocks that eventually worsened to the point where bone and muscle were exposed and visible — making his recovery and prognosis bleak.
"Ninety-five hours on a stretcher, unacceptable," Brosseau told Radio-Canada in an interview.
"Every time we go to the hospital, it's my duty to tell them that Normand is quadriplegic and needs an alternating pressure mattress … I don't understand how this can happen, because a mattress is the most basic thing."
Brosseau says although she advocated for her partner, she was told the special bed had to be ordered.
'I don't want to be a burden': Meunier
Without access to a mattress that shifts pressure points to prevent the formation of bedsores, a patient's position must be changed frequently, says Jean-Pierre Beauchemin, a retired geriatrician and professor at Université Laval's faculty of medicine.
"When you're lying down, always in the same position, there's hyper-pressure between the bone and the skin," said Beauchemin.
"A pressure sore can open in less than 24 hours, and then take a very long time to close."
The buttocks, heels, elbows and knees are particularly vulnerable.
A rotation schedule every two hours is generally necessary for a person confined to bed, according to a Quebec Health Ministry reference sheet.
Meunier had previously suffered other bedsores, notably on his heel, but nothing as disabling as the pressure sore he developed after his hospitalisation in Saint-Jérôme.
Speaking with Radio-Canada the day before his death, Meunier said he preferred putting an end to his physical and psychological suffering by opting for a medically assisted death.
He was told the sore — a gaping hole a few centimetres in diameter — would, at best, take several months to heal, according to the experts they consulted.
This is the insanity of Canada's assisted suicide laws.
If I were a quadriplegic, I would have ended my life long ago....But that would require assistance.
Its the logical end-game of a state-run medical system
Post-modern ideology will first force you into bad lifestyle choices
then bureaucratic bloat, corruption and incompetence will make sure you don’t get treated, or are treated badly
then they’ll offer to kill you, to ease your suffering and save them money
Will there be DEI goals on assisted euthanasia?
Quadriplegic Quebec man chooses assisted dying after 4-day ER stay leaves horrific bedsore
04/12/2024 7:40:56 AM PDT · by heartwood · 20 replies
CBC ^ | April 12, 2024 | Rachel Watts
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4230712/posts
They get ya coming and they get ya going
If you’re getting “horrific” bedsores in just 4 days you’ve got serious circulatory problems, plus of course quadriplegic. That’s a clock that’s already run down.
Can you get a bedsore so acute (in four days) that you’d want to commit suicide?
When I was taking care of my bedridden FIL (dementia), I was taught he could start developing a bedsore in as little as an hour. A full day of not moving is asking for trouble. Bedsores develop from the inside out - once they are open it’s a serious and painful problem.
We had alternating air mattresses, as well as an alternating air pad for his chair. We repositioned him every 30 minutes during the day, slathered zinc barrier cream, moved and massaged his arms and legs 3 times a day. I had to teach every in home caregiver the same, how to shift his weight and put pillows in various places to relieve pressure points. He did not develop a bedsore the entire last year of his life. The hospice nurse said his skin was in great shape.
So, having said that, not one RN or CNA caregiver we had (aside from the hospice nurse) knew how to prevent bedsores. I was amazed at that. I know they aren’t doing this in the hospital. When my sister was on a vent last year, my BIL and I stayed on the nurses to reposition her - and we checked her for sores every time. At first my BIL thought it was overkill but after seeing the unbelievable incompetence over the 6 months, he realized he had to take charge of her care.
It is sad this person is wanting to be euthanized, if he had the care and support he needed, he might not be so desperate 😞
But the dems told me Canada had the best healthcare system and we should model ours just like it.
Yes. Pressure sores can develop very quickly, and eventually become quite severe. They are very painful and difficult to treat. Add in the attitude which some in the medical community have toward patients with severe disabilities, and yes, they absolutely can be pushed to the point of becoming suicidal. When a patient is repeatedly told their clock has run out and they should just give up and stop wasting everyone’s resources, that their life is not worth living and it’s time to stop fighting the inevitable, that they are just a burden with no hope of recovery, that anybody else would have given up long ago and there is no point in them being so difficult, yes, it is possible to drive them to suicide.
Wow!
it’s a choice this guy has made. No one is forcing him.
They gave him pressure sores, causing him to die a slow painful death. He can avoid that by letting them kill him quickly. He has the luxury of choosing the method of his murder. It’s all voluntary on his part, right?
just shhhh.
No. History is scattered with corpses because good people just shhhhed when they should have spoken up. It’s how evil has triumphed. I will not just shhhh.
you keep on then. Just leave me out of the conversation.
If I were, say, a Christopher Reeve type quad, I'd think I would too. Get myself one of wheelchairs with a straw and blow myself off the nearest pier or to the nearest train tracks.
Of course, I'm not so I have no idea what I'd think. Maybe I'd stick it out, hoping some motivated scientist finds away to plug nerve cells back together. Maybe take some of the billions dedicated to AIDS research and transgender surgery and throw it my way.
But, yes, I can't imagine a worse quality of life. And the burden on my loved ones...
Thank you for doing this and for sharing it with us. Care is not hard when lives are treated with dignity, and where "Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself" are present.
I can't stand some of the cowardly comments on this thread.
Thank you for your kind words. It was hard but it was such an honor to provide care to him and treat him with dignity and respect as a fellow human being. He was a sweet, godly man who raised my wonderful husband (and also who served our country in his own way, he was one of the engineers of the US missile defense system way back when).
It is such a blessing to be able to make someone’s final days on earth as peaceful and comfortable as possible, and to hold his hand as he left this life to be with Jesus ❤️
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.