Family sounds alarm after 83-year-old grandma dies under Canada's assisted-death program

Brigitte Stegemann's granddaughter says the 83-year-old cried and said she had 'made a mistake' two days before her death

By Rachel del Guidice

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 800-273-TALK (8255).

The family of an 83-year-old Canadian woman is demanding answers after she died through the country's medical assistance in dying program despite allegedly becoming distraught when told the procedure would end her life and showing signs of cognitive decline, according to a report.

The Daily Mail reported Sunday that an 83-year-old Christian grandmother, Brigitte Stegemann, was killed under Canada’s physician-assisted suicide program, called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), on July 10.

Her granddaughter, Brigitte Kranendonk, said that she was her grandmother’s primary caregiver and that her family had decided to place Stegemann at The Pearl care home in Cannifton due to physical and mental decline.

Brigitte Kranendonk gestures with her grandmother Brigitte Stegemann. (Family Handout)

But according to Kranendonk, her grandmother still had a good appetite even following a stomach cancer diagnosis, and rejected the idea of using MAiD when it was presented as an option.

Everything changed, however, in June when Kranendonk left to go on a 10-day road trip with her husband.

Kranendonk said she remained in regular contact with the care home and was told her grandmother had fallen and would need a wheelchair, but said she was not initially alerted to any dramatic decline.

Canada's medical assistance in dying program is under scrutiny after an 83-year-old care home resident allegedly showed cognitive decline and distress before her euthanasia death. (iStock)

Then, on July 3, near the end of her trip, Kranendonk said she received a call informing her that the home planned to arrange a MAiD assessment for Stegemann, despite her grandmother previously telling her that she did not want an assisted death.

Kranendonk said, according to The Daily Mail, that when she returned, she asked a nurse at The Pearl about who had initiated the MAiD conversation.

"The nurse became very abrasive, very defensive," Kranendonk told The Daily Mail. "She was like, ‘Well, I’m just trying to advocate for her. I’m just trying to do what’s right for her.’"

After returning from her trip, Kranendonk said she found out her grandmother had already had her first MAID consultation.

The granddaughter also alleged that Stegemann struggled during an assessment of her mental capacity, incorrectly answering questions about members of her own family.

The Daily Mail reported Sunday that an 83-year-old Christian grandmother, Brigitte Stegemann, was killed under Canada’s physician-assisted suicide program, called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), on July 10. (iStock)

Kranendonk said she was present for Stegemann's second MAID assesment, and said that the doctor used "really loose terms, never using the words death or dying."

"She explains MAID to my grandmother by saying: 'We’re going to give you medicine, you’re going to feel at peace. And I just want you to know that you won’t have a bowel movement,'" Kranendonk said.

When Kranendonk interjected and said, "She doesn’t understand what you’re saying," the doctor allegedly looked at Stegemann and said, "We’re going to make sure you won’t have any more pain."

According to a doctor, Stegemann was "deemed fit for MAID, and we're going to proceed," The Daily Mail reported.

Kranendonk said that two days before Stegemann's death, she asked her grandmother directly whether she understood that the scheduled procedure meant she would die.

An elderly resident sits with a walker at a nursing home. (Getty Images)

According to Kranendonk's account to the outlet, Stegemann began crying and said she had "made a mistake."

Stegemann was allegedly told by the doctor her grandmother could "deny" MAiD on the day of the procedure, but Stegemann was already unsure if her grandmother had actually consented to it, did not want to cause her more stress, and wanted to enjoy what could be the last few days she had left with her grandmother.

During the procedure, Kranendonk said the nurse who was administering the IV was not wearing gloves and had a hard time putting it into her right arm, piercing her grandmother many times, which resulted in "blood all over the place."

The doctor then came and told Stegemann she was there to give her "medicine," which she did not respond to.

Brigitte Kranendonk sits with her grandmother Brigitte Stegemann. (Family Handout)

"My Oma is not moving," Kranendonk said. "She doesn't open her eyes. She doesn't nod. She doesn't say anything, and the doctor just said: ‘Okay, well, I'm going to proceed.’"

Kranendonk said her grandmother was dead within 10 minutes.

Kranendonk said she wishes she would have applied for a legal injunction to stop the MAiD from occurring, but also said she was not aware she had the option.

She is appealing to the Chief Coroner’s Office in Ontario, as well as the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police, to investigate if what happened was legal.

According to the BBC, Canada’s MAID law, which legalized euthanasia in 2016, is responsible for one in every 20 deaths in Canada.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Kranendonk said, "My grandmother was a vulnerable senior who was let down when the doctors and home bypassed every safeguard put in place to protect her — from assessing her mental capacity, to getting her clear, final consent before acting and the home filling out paperwork and having her sign when we were not there, and giving us copies. I will not stop until there is a full investigation into how this was allowed to happen behind closed doors."

Brigitte Kranendonk hugs her grandmother Brigitte Stegemann. (Family Handout)

Mira Metter, Director of "Broken Country," a film about the decline of the country over the last two decades, said in a statement to Fox News Digital, "What is particularly troubling about this case is that it raises questions Canadians should be asking about whether MAID’s safeguards are protecting vulnerable people as intended."

Metter added, "A compassionate healthcare system should ensure that when someone is at their most vulnerable, every reasonable avenue for care and support has been explored before death is presented as an option. MAID may be legal in Canada, but legality cannot be the end of the conversation."

Laura Echevarria, National Right to Life's communications director and press secretary, told Fox News Digital in a statement, "Euthanasia and assisted suicide cross a line medicine should never cross: from caring for patients to intentionally ending their lives. The most vulnerable among us deserve protection, compassion, and care—not death presented as medical treatment. No safeguard can undo a mistake once a patient is dead."

Fox News Digital reached out to The Pearl and Belleville Police for comment but did not immediately hear back.  

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Family sounds alarm after 83-year-old grandma dies under Canada's assisted-death program 

Woman Featured in Creepy Pro-Euthanasia Ad Wanted to Live

A 37-year-old Canadian woman featured in a fashion company’s disturbing pro-euthanasia ad had wanted to live.

But after “falling through the cracks” for years in the government-run healthcare system, Jennyfer Hatch gave up and agreed to an assisted suicide instead, according to the Daily Mail.

“I thought, ‘Goodness, I feel like I’m falling through the cracks so if I’m not able to access health care, am I then able to access death care?’ And that’s what led me to look into medical assistance in dying and I applied last year,” she told CTV in a recently resurfaced interview from June.

New details about the woman’s story emerged this week in response to outrage about “The Most Beautiful Exit” ad from fashion company La Maison Simons. The ad showed a terminally ill Hatch celebrating her last days of life before being euthanized under the Canadian Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) law, which killed more than 10,000 people last year, the Mail reports.

The ad, which has been widely condemned for glorifying euthanasia, ends with the message “For Jennyfer, June 1985-October 2022,” suggesting she was euthanized in October. Now, questions are arising about whether she would still be alive today if she had received the proper medical care that she had sought for years.

Using a pseudonym, Hatch, of British Columbia, spoke to CTV in June about her struggles with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and her failed battles with the Canadian medical system to receive the medical care that she needed. The news outlet confirmed this month that the individual in their June article was Hatch, according to the report.

The interview shows how hopelessness and frustration turned the woman’s thoughts to assisted suicide. Since being diagnosed with EDS a decade ago, Hatch said she has had to struggle to obtain basic medical care.

“From a disability and financial perspective as well, I can’t afford the resources that would help improve my quality of life. Because of being locked in financially as well and geographically, it is far easier to let go than keep fighting,” she told CTV in June.

When her condition became terminal, she said she did not even receive proper palliative care, the St. Thomas Times-Journal reports.

Here’s more from the report:

However, B.C. was quick to approve Hatch’s application for MAID. “There were no other treatment recommendations or interventions that were suitable to the patient’s needs or to her financial constraints,” reads a CTV excerpt of the MAID approval issued to Hatch by Fraser Health, the health agency serving B.C.’s Lower Mainland.

None of these complicating factors were mentioned in the Simons ad, which instead highlighted what it called the “hard beauty” of assisted suicide.

The fashion company recently removed the ad in response to the outrage.

The news of Hatch’s real situation comes amid numerous reports of coercion and abuse under the 2016 law. In another widely publicized case, a Paralympian and retired military corporal said the Department of Veterans Affairs offered her an assisted suicide after she repeatedly requested a wheelchair ramp for her home.

Canada legalized assisted suicide, referred to as MAID, for adults in 2016. Recently, lawmakers began debating whether to expand the law to allow mentally ill people and young children to be euthanized. One bill would allow doctors to euthanize patients without their consent, according to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Full Article & Source:
Woman Featured in Creepy Pro-Euthanasia Ad Wanted to Live

90-Year-Old Woman Kills Herself Rather Than Go Through Another Lockdown

Canada’s parliament is currently debating Bill C-7, a bill to expand (MAiD) euthanasia in Canada to people who are not dying.

Even though Bill C-7 is not yet passed,  CTV News Medical Correspondent, Avis Favaro, reported that Nancy Russell, a 90-year-old long-term care resident, who was not chronically ill or dying, died last month by euthanasia (MAiD) to avoid living through another COVID-19 lock-down.

Favaro reports:

Across Canada, long-term care homes and retirement homes are seeing rising cases of COVID-19 and deaths yet again, a worrisome trend that is leading to more restrictions for the residents.

But these lockdowns are taking another toll among those who don’t get COVID-19.

Residents eat meals in their rooms, have activities and social gatherings cancelled, family visits curtailed or eliminated. Sometimes they are in isolation in their small rooms for days. These measures, aimed at saving lives, can sometimes be detrimental enough to the overall health of residents that they find themselves looking into other options.

Russell, described by her family as exceptionally social and spry, was one such person. Her family says she chose a medically-assisted death (MAID) after she declined so sharply during lockdown that she didn’t want to go through more isolation this winter.

Russell, who was a supporter of euthanasia, when first requesting “MAiD” was turned down. The doctor told her that she had “too much to live for.” But she was then approved after her second request. The report stated:

By the time she applied a second time, “more concrete medical health” issues had developed, her daughter said.

This time, doctors approved her. Russell would not have to go through another lockdown in her care home.

“She just truly did not believe that she wanted to try another one of those two-week confinements into her room,” her daughter said.

Doctor shopping is a clear concern with Canada’s euthanasia law. Russell was probably sent, the second time, to a doctor who provides euthanasia. Canada’s euthanasia law is based on subjective rules.
In August 2020, Rob Munro reported a similar story for the Kelowna Infonews. Shirley Turton (78), asked her family to arrange a “MAiD” death because she felt “locked into a long term care prison” due to COVID-19.

Munro reported that the daughter of Shirley Turton said that her mother is not terminally ill but she had become:

depressed, not interested in eating and can’t even put a glass of water to her lips but, most of all she is lonely.

Turton didn’t die by euthanasia, but it is impossible to know how many Canadians have died by euthanasia based on the COVID-19 lock-down.For instance, the Ontario data does not indicate how many MAiD deaths are based on similar reasons to Nancy Russell’s death but recent Ontario MAiD statistics indicate that the number of euthanasia deaths is increasing.

From June 17, 2016 to October 31, 2020, there were 6266 reported assisted deaths in Ontario. There have been 1948 reported assisted deaths in 2020 representing 1127 in the first six months of 2020 and 821 in the last four months (now averaging more than 200 assisted deaths per month) in Ontario.

Canada’s MAiD law permits euthanasia for people who are physically or psychologically suffering that is considered intolerable to the person and that cannot be relieved in a way that the person considers acceptable.

 

Full Article & Source:

90-Year-Old Woman Kills Herself Rather Than Go Through Another Lockdown