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.
When you come onto a conservative forum and make misleading comments in support of pushing disabled people toward death while dishonestly calling it voluntary, you should expect someone to reply. But if you’re done, that’s that.
we have big problems with health care...one is that we are aging and the size of the younger generations is shrinking...
its extremely costly to keep very sick people alive and well....and our choices are being slimmed down as we speak....
my mother and father took care of my grandma even when she had cancer in our home, with 6 kids....
most families won't/can't do that...but it will be a must as the yrs go on.
I reread the title and stand with my first comment.
have a great upcoming week.
I’m not surprised. I just hope no innocent person ever has to depend on you.
I don’t know how you found your way to a conservative website, but if you had a brain in your head you’d find out who owns this site before making any further comments on the subject.
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