Let hospitals deal with assisted dying

Re: Hospital eyes lead role in assisted dying, Aug. 14.

After nine-and-a-half years of various treatments for peritoneal/ovarian cancer, my wife opted for assisted dying with the Ottawa Hospital in October 2016.

It was arranged and provided with compassion, in the most sensitive and reasonably fast way, and I can talk about the service and professionals who administer it only in superlatives. My wife was the first one in the Ottawa region who received this service at home.

Since 2006, when his mother died, my mentally challenged cousin was in my care. I live in Ottawa, and he was in a retirement home in Owen Sound. In 2014, his physical condition deteriorated so much I thought he was dying. He was bedridden, could not eat by himself and the conversation with him was incoherent.

Rather than moving him to a long-term facility in Owen Sound, I requested his transfer to Ottawa where I could better take care of him. At that point, I encountered the Champlain Local Health Integration Network. I know there is a shortage of longterm facilities, but the process was a bureaucratic, nerve-racking nightmare.

The LHIN and Ottawa Hospital are in talks to co-ordinate assisted dying regionally. I plead for all people who may need assisted dying: Please, leave this service to the hospital. Jiri Soukup, Richmond