Battle to visit dying brother continues
Hugh Perry is desperate to see his 73-year-old brother, who he expects will die within a week.
The 65-year-old Timaru lawyer last saw his gravely ill brother in Burwood Hospital in Christchurch on Tuesday, after a long battle with the Canterbury District Health Board for permission for a one-time visit during lockdown.
‘‘I stayed with him most of the day. I was holding his hand for the majority of the time and rubbing the side of his arm, and generally trying to comfort him.
‘‘It was a bit shocking; he’s not able to respond to much at all.’’
His brother, Tom, has been in hospital since suffering stroke following a heart attack earlier this year.
It was after that visit that Perry was left with the ‘‘heart-wrenching’’ decision, as his brother’s enduring power of attorney, to stop the medication ‘‘keeping him alive’’ and only continue with what was making him comfortable.
‘‘I was told there’s no hope he’s going to make any kind of recovery and if he did, there will be no quality of life.’’
Perry said his brother would most likely die within a week of halting medication.
Under Covid-19 alert level 2, Tom has been allowed two authorised visitors – which Perry agreed to temporarily be their Christchurchbased brother, Bob, and the dying man’s girlfriend.
‘‘I needed to come back to Timaru for a brief time for my solo law practice in Timaru, and I didn’t want my brother to be without a visitor. Now I’m told I can’t visit again.
‘‘I want to be able to switch between my older brother and myself, and my older brother agrees. I’m closest to him [Tom]. I would call him every second or third night and the day before his stroke, I talked to him for an hour and a half.’’
Perry felt the health board’s decision was ‘‘inhumane’’ and planned to appeal it as soon as he was back in Christchurch.
‘‘It’s an extremely emotional time, and he’s terminal,’’ he said.
‘‘I feel like a murderer. I was left with that decision to halt his medication and then I may not be able to see him again.’’
Yesterday, the Canterbury District Health Board said: ‘‘At Burwood Hospital, all visitors need to be checked in at the main entrance on Burwood Rd, and two nominated people can visit for the duration of a patient’s stay but they must visit at different times during the visiting hours of 11am–7pm."