A woman whose partner died by euthanasia after developing a bedsore during a stay at a Quebec hospital says medical staff did not respond to her requests to improve his conditions, which she says might have prevented the wound.
Sylvie Brosseau made the comments at the Montreal Courthouse, where a public inquiry is being held into the death of her partner, Normand Meunier, who requested medical assistance in dying (MAID) after developing a serious bedsore while being treated for a respiratory virus at St-Jérôme Hospital, where he was left on a stretcher for four days.
Bedsores, also called pressure ulcers, are injuries caused by localized, prolonged pressure over an area of the body. Meunier, a 66-year-old quadriplegic, requested MAID two months after developing the injury on his buttocks and died on March 29, 2024.
Quebec’s chief coroner, Reno Bernier,
ordered a public inquiry into the case on June 25, 2024, following a request from Public Security Minister François Bonnardel. Coroner Dave Kimpton was appointed to lead the investigation, with hearings
starting on May 5, 2025, and scheduled to run until June 6.
Brosseau said outside the Montreal courtroom that she repeatedly asked medical staff to provide Meunier with a therapeutic mattress to prevent sores, but her requests were not addressed.
The hospital says it was “deeply saddened” by Meunier’s passing and that it is working to improve care for those prone to bedsores.
“The prevention and treatment of injuries in people with reduced mobility presents many challenges, and we must constantly adapt our approaches for better prevention and improved treatment,” hospital spokesperson Myriam Sabourin told The Epoch Times in a May 15 statement.
“We are committed to continually improving in order to better meet the needs of people with reduced mobility, who are more prone to developing pressure injuries.”
Steven Laperriere, general manager of the advocacy group Regroupement des Activistes pour l'Inclusion au Québec, which supports the rights of disabled people, previously
told The Epoch Times Meunier’s death could have been prevented.
“It’s really a crying shame because this death should have and could have been avoided if we had treated him right the first time,” Laperriere said. “There is no valid explanation to the fact that within a couple of hours, we could not find a proper mattress that’s suited for him.”
MAID in Canada
The number of assisted deaths in Canada
exceeded 15,000 in 2023, an increase of 15.8 percent compared to the previous year, according to Health Canada’s most recent
report.
Canada’s euthanasia laws are among the most liberal in the world.
Currently, eligibility for MAID requires being at least 18 years old and having a medical condition that is considered “grievous and irremediable.” Euthanasia became legal in Canada in 2016, and in 2021, the federal government
passed legislation that eliminated the requirement that a persons’ death must be “reasonably foreseeable” in order to qualify for medically assisted death.
“The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring our laws reflect Canadians’ evolving needs, support their autonomy and freedom of choice, and protect those who are vulnerable,” Ottawa said at the time.
Canada had planned to expand eligibility for MAID to include individuals whose sole condition is a mental illness,
saying it “recognizes that mental illness can cause the same level of suffering as that of physical illnesses.” However, amid concerns by activists and the Opposition, the government in 2024
paused this expansion for three years, saying the system is not yet equipped to handle the change.
Meanwhile, MAID has come under scrutiny in recent years, following reports that those in difficult socioeconomic situations are accessing it amid a lack of support options, and other cases where federal agencies offered MAID to people unprompted.
In one of the latest known
cases, Canadian Armed Forces veteran David Baltzer said on a recent podcast that he was offered MAID by Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) in 2019 after learning that his income replacement support would be ending. He said the unprompted offer left him perplexed and led him to focus on improving his situation.
A similar case
drew national attention in 2022, when a House of Commons committee heard testimony from Christine Gauthier, a retired Canadian Armed Forces corporal and former Paralympian, who suffered from a back injury. She said she was offered MAID after contacting VAC to get a wheelchair ramp installed at her home.
She was the sixth veteran who had reportedly been offered the procedure at the time.
An Ontario doctor last year
sounded the alarm about people without irreversible conditions being offered MAID, rather than being provided access to services that could have improved their situations.
One case was that of a man with inflammatory bowel disease, a history of mental illness, and ongoing addiction issues who was given the choice of assisted suicide rather than being offered addiction treatment, according to the 2024 MAID death review
report by the province of Ontario.
In an
overview updated in October 2024, Health Canada says it has extra safeguards for MAID requests where natural death is not reasonably foreseeable, including a medical assessment by a practitioner with expertise in the applicant’s condition, and ensuring the person is informed about available resources to alleviate their suffering, such as counselling services.
The Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers has
said that all assisted dying assessments are patient-driven, and that this is ensured through multiple safeguards.
Chandra Philip and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
