Palliative care was hard to obtain

If I lived in St-Jerôme, and had a terminal illness, I would request a doctor-assisted death. A shocking statement indeed, considering I am a palliative care nurse who provides compassionate care to patients and their families in Richmond Hill, Ont. Some palliative patients have a prognosis of six months; others are at the end of their life.

My brother died last week. He suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, a life-limiting disease, and misdiagnosed colitis. For several months, he and his family requested and were consistently denied a palliative-care consult, as well as in-home oxygen therapy. Doctors told them it was too soon. In November, the ER doctor told his daughter “she was crazy” for thinking her father needed a palliative consult.

In his last two months of life, he was seen in the emergency department three times, and had two short-stay admissions. He never saw the same doctor, and he was told his lung specialist could not see him in the hospital.

On the Friday before he died, his children arranged for him to be admitted to a residence in St- Sauveur that also provided palliative care. But their nightmare was not over.

After spending all day Saturday trying to find a doctor to hand over his care to the palliative care team, their only option was to call 911 and have their father transported back to the emergency department to be seen by a doctor who could complete the handover of care — a tragic misuse of health care dollars and ER services.

My brother died peacefully within 48 hours of being admitted to the residence. He received the compassionate palliative care he had deserved for so long; he was finally relieved of his pain, breathlessness, hallucinations and terminal restlessness.

I think it is a tragedy that the residents of the province that is at the forefront of doctor-assisted death are denied accessible palliative care. They, at the very least, have the right to choose. Elaine Lafave Walsh, RN, Richmond Hill, Ont.