Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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Normand Meunier |
Gordon Friesen, the President of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition responded to the Meunier death by stating:
A Coroner's inquest in St-Jerome Québec is investigating the death of Normand Meunier. Steve Rukavina reported for CBC News on May 5 that:In January, 2024, Normand Meunier visited the emergency department of a major regional hospital in the Province of Quebec, the jurisdiction with the highest euthanasia rate in the world.
Gordon Friesen
Meunier was complaining of a potentially life-threatening respiratory infection which was successfully treated during his stay. And yet, before he was even formally admitted to hospital, this patient spent 95 hours on a stretcher in the emergency corridor, resulting in a severe pressure sore which ultimately decided him to end his own life through consent to Medical Assistance in Dying.
Sylvie Brosseau, her voice breaking and her eyes moist, spoke of her husband's final days over a year after he sought medical assistance in dying following a hospital stay that left him with a severe and painful bedsore.Steve Rukavina reported for CBC News on May 6 that:
"His last two weeks…it was horror," she told reporters during a break in the public inquiry into his death that began Monday morning in Montreal.
"I hope this will change things, because even now nothing has changed."
Normand Meunier, 66, who was quadriplegic, was stuck on a stretcher in an emergency room at a hospital in Saint-Jérôme, Que., for four days in January of last year.
During his stay, Meunier didn't have access to a special mattress and developed a major pressure sore on his buttocks. It eventually worsened to the point where bone and muscle were exposed and visible — making his recovery and prognosis bleak.
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 he consulted.
"It was horrible. He had no buttocks. There was nothing left," Brosseau said.
The day before his death, Meunier spoke to Radio-Canada and said he preferred putting an end to his physical and psychological suffering by opting for a medically assisted death.
Meunier died on March 29, 2024.
Brigitte Guilbon, a licensed practical nurse who was part of Meunier's care team from 2022 until his death in March 2024, testified Tuesday at the coroner's inquiry looking into the 66-year-old's death.
Guilbon testified she had never seen a wound like the one Meunier returned home with after being stuck on a stretcher for four days in the emergency room.
"His morale was very, very low, and the sore was horrible," Guilbon testified, wiping her eyes as her voice broke.
As Guilbon described the gaping, blackened wound on Meunier's buttocks a few centimetres in diameter, coroner Dave Kimpton requested a brief recess, noting the testimony was difficult for Meunier's partner, Sylvie Brosseau, to hear.
When the hearing resumed, Kimpton said future witnesses would not be asked to describe the wound in detail, to spare Brosseau from having to hear the description repeatedly.
Meunier was quadriplegic and prone to bedsores. Guilbon testified he had to be turned every two hours in order to prevent them.
She said before the hospital stay in late January 2024, she and other members of Meunier's care team were able to keep his recurring bedsores "stable" and "under control."
Guilbon said before Meunier was admitted to hospital with a suspected virus on Jan. 18, 2024, his general state was good.
During the hospital stay, Meunier didn't have access to a special pressure mattress that he normally used at home, despite Brosseau making repeated requests to hospital staff.
Guilbon testified she was shocked when she first saw Meunier's bedsore on Feb. 1, 2024, after he returned home from hospital, saying she had never seen such a wound in her 15-year career.
She said she questioned whether he should've even been released from hospital, and that she believed the bandage and treatment of the bedsore at the hospital were not appropriate.
Guilbon said she and the home-care team did their best to care for the wound, but it continued to deteriorate in the weeks following Meunier's hospital stay.
She said at the time, Meunier wasn't sleeping well and was very worried about his prognosis.
Brigitte Cyr, the head of the home-care department for the CLSC that provided care to Meunier, also testified Tuesday.
She said she first became aware of Meunier's case on Feb. 2, 2024, when his occupational therapist asked to meet with her.
Cyr said the the occupational therapist was "a bit panicked" as she recounted what home-care nurses and Brosseau had said about Meunier's extended stay on a stretcher in the ER and the bedsore he developed.
Then Cyr saw a photo of the bedsore. She said it defied imagination.
"I said to myself, 'my god, what happened?'" she testified.
Cyr said she immediately followed up with the hospital and arranged for Meunier to be readmitted for a treatment that can be painful, known as debridement, which involves removing damaged tissue from a wound to help it heal better.
She says she also made inquiries to try to determine what went wrong during Meunier's hospital stay but had trouble getting clear answers.Sylvie Brosseau, Normand Meunier's wife, was constantly at his side after his accident.
Gordon Friesen responded to the death of Normand Meunier by stating - In a word: Bad care produces more euthanasia. And more euthanasia enables more bad care.
6 comments:
What a tragic and sad reflection of how this man’s life ended so unnecessarily. To say that the system failed him is a gross understatement and I hope the inquiry yields the necessary resolutions. When the system fails so overwhelmingly, every citizen needs to do a deep reassessment of our individual priorities. May he rest in peace.
Simply heartbreaking. What a tragedy!
Inhumane. Heartbreaking. Tragic. My heart breaks for this man and those who loved him.
I agree 100% with Gordon Friesen! I saw that with my mom in an Ontario hospital. If I hadn’t been there every day, I can only imagine.
Horrific
What a tragic story and unnecessary suffering. Poor gentleman.
I once had a dear friend by the name of Tom. He had two 'holes' in his lower leg which refused to heal as the surrounding tissue was basically rotting and the leg bone was visible. His mother suffered from the same affliction of the leg too.
Anyway his niece, a qualified nurse, begged him to see the local General Practitioner at the local clinic. The GP told Tom he would need amputation. Tom took to his heels out of there and refused to ever return to any medical facility. He was constantly in pain, and had to see to his own personal care even though his niece offered her help too.
One day down at the local pub, someone suggested going to Holland & Barratt and buying a jar of specialised honey, (I think the name began with 'M') which he duly did, He bought lots of sterilized lint and started applying the honey to both holes. He noticed a decrease in the pain fairly quickly and sure enough the wounds started to respond.
The whole process took several months - if I remember close to a year and the wounds healed completely. That's when he showed them to me, but not before. I was amazed, but so pleased he had at last found relief which turned out to be permanent.
Since then, Tom has passed on, but I always remembered how he overcame his problem and would never again trust the local health care services.
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