It’s September, and Stacey Hume is next to her dad’s hospital bed in the palliative ward of Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Community Hospital. She, along with her mom and sister, are told by staff that they need to make a choice about her dad.
Either contend with him possibly dying at a red light, alone in the ambulance, or remain in the hospital, where “it could be three, four or five more days of him hanging on like this,” recalled Hume.
Her dad, William Hume, was dying. He had been diagnosed with late-stage gastroesophageal cancer just a few months earlier. William wanted MAID, and was assessed and approved soon after he was diagnosed.
But the procedure is prohibited at Grey Nuns, where William was admitted, as it was the only Edmonton hospital with an ER bed available. The hospital is operated by Covenant Health — a publicly funded, Catholic health-care provider in Alberta — which does not allow MAID to be administered at any of its sites. William would have to be transferred to another facility.
I’m obviously not suggesting that the transfer system would change in the duration of William Hume’s suffering.
My point is that his suffering could be a symptom of a transfer system issue the requires resolution. By resolving THAT probable issue; we can both ensure Hume’s suffering is not in vien AND reduce future unnecessary suffering, long term effects, and/or death.
To be clear, I am fully supportive of MAID and have a living will of MAID criteria to make decisions easier on my family. My grandfather-in-law didn’t take the MAID route in September, simply because ceasing medication was a quicker option.
I’m also supportive of facilities not providing MAID, but not for uniquely religious reasons. I’m also not opposed to the Québec legislation that requires all palliative facilities to provide it. It can even make it easier for facilities to not provide MAID by just also not providing palliative (though that comes with a transfer requirement for all palliative patients…)