Quadriplegic Quebec man chooses assisted dying after 4-day ER stay leaves horrific bedsore – CBC

‘Whole story is a crying shame,’ says advocate

Apr 12, 2024

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.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/assisted-death-quadriplegic-quebec-man-er-bed-sore-1.7171209