“This is what dying with dignity”

Photo Stevens Leblanc
Linda, Johanne, Pierre and Andrée Langlois are in the room where their mother is hydrated, smooth, surrounded by his family.

Pierre-Paul Biron

Saturday, 30 September 2017, 00:00

UPDATE
Saturday, 30 September 2017, 00:00

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Struck by the current debate surrounding medical aid in dying, the members of a family who has lived through the process, until the death of their mother in the beginning of the year are the duty to tell their story, ” a story of serenity and dignity “.

Jeanne Roy died at his home on the 6th of January last, at the age of 78 years. Smooth, lying in his bed and surrounded by his family, we put an end to the suffering unspeakable that was causing him such a virulent cancer of the lungs. Medical help to die became the ultimate liberation for the lady who was not able even to feed themselves.

Six months later, four of his children to share these last moments as being one of the things the more human they have lived. Yes, they are grieving today, but they call it simply ” beautiful mourning “.

“When she saw return of the doctor in the room, his eyes became bright and she was trying to get up to take her hands,” recalls Johanne Langlois, surrounded by her sisters Linda and Andrea, as well as his brother Peter.

After the final goodbyes, the words of the doctor in charge of the ceremony had marked the family ever. “The doctor pandered to the hands and told her, “Jeanne, I am going to open the gates of paradise”. It was a true concentrate of love and emotions, ” recalls Andrea.

Keep the control

In the fall preceding the death of Mrs. Roy, it is his son Peter who had addressed the first question with it. Still troubled by the death of his father in the hospital, the man did not want to relive those difficult moments.

“I don’t like the principle of dying in the hospital. It is impersonal, it’s cold. Medical help to die allowed him to be here, in it, up to the end “, explains Peter, who lived with his mother and cared for her for several years.

In choosing medical help to die, in his seventies, was thus able to “keep control on her life” and, by the same token, his dignity until the very end, insist on his children. Choice of urn, choice of location, choice of who was going to surround it and, most importantly, choice at the moment, the four children have never regretted the final decision to their mother.

“We had the time to say. We could paste into bed with her one after the other, like when we were small, ” says Linda still moved thinking back to those family moments.

The importance of talking about it

Their mother is one of the few in Quebec to have been able to meet all of the criteria of medical help to die (see box), the Langlois are important today to talk about what they have experienced.

“When it is said, there is often a small step back, as if it was scary to people. But they are asking a lot of questions and it is important that we respond. It is necessary to talk about it, ” insists Peter.

“It must be said that this is a true quality care,” adds Joanne. The doctors are not there just for the person who made the request, but they are there for the whole family. “

Medical assistance numbers in Quebec

(Data from the first year of implementation of the act : 10 December 2015 to 9 June 2016)

• 724 applications submitted
• 464 deaths by medical help to die
• 260 requests that have not been administered*

*Applications not administered may be due to a refusal of the application, a death before the procedure of medical assistance to die, or because of a change of mind of the patient.

Main reasons of the applications rejected

• The patient is not considered to be end-of-life

• There is no pain, physical or psychic intolerable

• Inability of the patient to consent until the end

Conditions to be met to qualify

• Be major

• To be able to consent to care, that is to say, to be able to understand the situation and the information transmitted by health professionals, as well as to make decisions

• Be end-of-life

• Be suffering from a serious disease and incurable

• Have a medical condition that is characterized by a decline in advanced and irreversible of its capabilities

• Experience physical or mental suffering constant, unbearable and cannot be alleviated in conditions that are deemed tolerable

Source : Compilation by The Log data from 26 centres, integrated health and institutions