this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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Quadriplegic Quebec man chooses assisted dying after 4-day ER stay leaves horrific bedsore (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The article goes on about this pressure sore, but I don't think that's why he wants to die.

It quotes him saying that he doesn't want to be a burden, and as he's a fairly new quadriplegic (less than two years) who's had multiple health issues during that time (including other pressure sores), I think his mind was already made up long before this sore.

He basically can't accept his disability.

Obviously, the hospital needs to get their shit together, but this situation goes way deeper than a sore (no pun intended).

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

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.

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.

Don't trivialize the sore.

Also, what is mind blowing is that this monstrosity is nosocomial. The healthcare system gave it to him.

So why would he have any trust to such a system afterwards to care for him with his disability in the long term?? This is a completely catastrophic healthcare failure.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Don’t trivialize the sore.

I 100% don't trivialize it. I've had a similar wound that took many months to heal, so I empathize completely. From what I understand, the sore doesn't cause him pain, but it requires ongoing care that he doesn't want to "burden" (his words) anyone with.

Also, what is mind blowing is that this monstrosity is nosocomial. The healthcare system gave it to him.

Yes. I'm in complete agreement. I hope that his wife can get a settlement out of it.

So why would he have any trust to such a system afterwards to care for him with his disability in the long term?? This is a completely catastrophic healthcare failure.

I think we have two separate issues here. On the one hand, it really was a failure of the healthcare system (the specific hospital), for the series of events leading to his pressure sore.

But from reading more about this case, there was a lot more to it. The man was obese; his wife was his caregiver, and he viewed his care as a burden; he quite literally has no use of his arms or legs and can't participate in the things he used to love; he suffered from multiple respiratory infections and had pressure sores previous to this hospital stay; and I don't think he wanted his life to continue like that.

As I've volunteered to help disabled people, I can understand how one can get into a mental hole of despair. It's common, especially for life-altering disabilities that came from something sudden, like an accident.

Would more time have given him hope for the future? I have no idea. I don't know the man. I do know several paraplegics, who have gone to live quite normal lives over decades, but it's far different from being a quadriplegic.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

He basically can't accept his disability.

I think this is a terrible way to say that he's made a choice not to live with it. You're framing it as an inability to cope. Choosing death is coping.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I think this is a terrible way to say that he’s made a choice not to live with it.

Can't live with it, or unwilling to? There's a difference, and it sounds like chose the latter (in his interview).

I support MAID, and don't judge this man at all for choosing it; I'm glad the option to end his suffering was made available.

But this story goes beyond a pressure sore. Even though the focus of the article makes it seem like a pressure sore drove someone to literally pick death. I'm saying that his mind was already made up well before this happened.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Guy basically said, I don’t want to live on this planet anymore. Incredibly sad how things have deteriorated.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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.

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.

"That whole story is a crying shame," said Steven Laperrière, the director general of the Regroupement des activistes pour l'inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ), which supports people with disabilities.

In an email to CBC, management at the local health authority, CISSS des Laurentides, said it is taking Meunier's case "very seriously."

The Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto says people who are already vulnerable are left feeling like more of a burden in the system.

The original article contains 845 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

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.