After Bedsaur, the person receiving aid, ‘You have to fight for the inquiry of the coroner.
After Bedsaur, the person receiving aid, ‘You have to fight for the inquiry of the coroner.
In dozens of people who testified in an investigation into a coroner of Normand Munier, Cloud Label can only be what he really understands what he was doing.
Meunier, a 66 -year -old quadrilateral cubec man, Requested medical aid in dying Last year, after developing a serious bedsore during a four-day stay at ER at St.-Jeram Hospital.
The investigation has heard in the last several weeks unbearable pain He was suffering, and how the system fail Before he died in March 2024.
“In my opinion, it was the right thing,” Labelle on Tuesday said about the mayunier’s decision in an interview with CBC News after her testimony.
“It was very, very, very difficult for him – a big, severe lesion.”
Like Meunier, Labelle is quadrilateral, uses a wheelchair and is at risk of severe bedsore on its buttocks.
“As soon as you have pressure or redness, this is a possible throat beginning, so what you have to do is to remove the pressure at that red place,” Labelle said. “I have to be on my side – one side or the other, never on my back.”
This may mean that beddides can be done in an uncomfortable position for the day or even weeks, while one is waiting for the throat to be cured.
The key to prevent such wounds is to change the positions every two hours, and to use a special pressure mattress to sleep or relax.
During his stay in ER, he was unable to achieve access to such a mattress, the investigation has heard.
Like Meunier, Labelle often occurs in the hospital, and they also have difficulty reaching those mattresses. He said that every time, he has to re -discover the hospital staff, which they require care to stop the bedsore.
Labelle said that when he does so, he is often rejected by the hospital staff.
“You have to fight to take care. It’s nonsense,” Labelle said.
‘At the end of my rope’
Labelle told The Inquiry how she hit her own breaking point while staying in her most recent hospital in January, when she developed a neck and her discharge several times.
“When the doctor told me that I want to stay even longer, I said no, that’s it,” he said.
Labelle asked her doctor that day if she could request medical aid in dying.
“I was at the end of my rope,” he said.
The doctor asked him if he had a date in his mind.
“I said ‘as soon as possible”. I said’ If you can do it today, I do today, I can’t deal with today, “he said.
Labelle said at that time, he was afraid that he could be in bed for the rest of his life.
He said, “I made my peace with the rest of my life in a wheelchair, but not in the hospital bed.”
His doctor suggested that he takes time to discuss his request for a supporting death with his family before taking a final decision.
He eventually decided not to move forward with it.
“It is still in my head. I have no wound yet. I have no sign in the neck, which encourages me,” he said.
“But it’s critical.”
A dozen requests for assisted death
A advocate group representing people with spinal cord injuries described cases of inquiries such as Labelle and Munier as “The Tip of the Iceberg”.
Walter Zelaya, Chairman Moëlle épinière et Motricité Québec (Memo Quebec) also testified during the investigation on Tuesday, who in their last week heard the recommendations from experts how to prevent such incidents from happening again.
Zelaya told the CBC in an interview after his testimony, “At least 12 members of our association have requested medical aid in dying due to health problems and a health care system that does not take care of them.”
Zelaya said that all requests came from the province Loose the criteria In 2023, to get medical aided death.
He said that in most cases, patients were disappointed that the hospital and CLSC were not enough to help prevent and treat bedsor.
“People are caught amidst the inappropriate suffering of their experience, and eventually decide to leave. And they eventually choose to leave,” Zelaya said.
“We understand this decision very well, but it is very painful to see that these people did not want to die deep.”
Hard for patients since health care reforms
During his testimony, Zelaya showed several pictures of the painful bedsore presented by the group members, which is similar to the meanier developed in the hospital.
His group holds a registry of members who have bedsore, and currently dozens.
Zalaya said that things became difficult for group members in 2015 health care reform Of the previous liberal government.
He said that the centralization of administration and decision making at that time meant many local institutions-individual hospitals and rehabilitation centers-lost their governance structures.
it became Hard for patients He said that with special requirements to request care and services, and when it became difficult to complain for them, when things went wrong, they said.
Zelaya said that this has led to an increase in patients developing severe bedsor.
Memo Quebec made several recommendations for investigation, including:
- Creating wound clinics dedicated to patients with pressure wounds.
- Improving communication between home-care services and hospitals so that patients’ care plan automatically follow them when they are hospitalized.
- To ensure that all hospitals and care houses have a proper supply of accessible pressure mattress.
- Training on bedsor prevention and care for all health care workers.
- Recognizing and evaluating the expertise of patients with pressure wounds.
- Ensuring every patient who suffers from chronic bedsore is followed by a family doctor.
Other groups also made recommendations for investigation this week, including health care institutes and professional orders.
Coroner Dave Kimpton will now take time to consider all testimony before giving a final report with recommendations, which is expected in three months.
‘I am confident that something will happen’
Labelle said that when Memo Cubek first asked him to testify during interrogation, he had doubts.
“I wondered if it was a waste of time, if after all, no one is going to do anything,” he said.
But he says to look at this process, and to see how Kampton handled the witnesses, made them more optimistic.
“He is really on his game, is really attentive to details, and is taking time to hear,” Labelle said.
“I really believe it will give birth to something, and if it doesn’t, the memo will knock on the cubem doors,” he said.
“Maybe I will also stay there,” he said, then stopping for a moment, curling a minor smile on his face.
“Can’t, I’m going there,” he said.
