Quebec man chooses assisted death after emergency department stay leaves him with agonising pressure ulcer

Disability advocates and the family of a tetraplegic patient in Quebec are calling for an independent inquiry after a four day stay on an emergency department stretcher left him with a pressure ulcer so painful that he opted for medically assisted death.Normand Meunier, 66, died surrounded by family on 29 March. He had been told by doctors that an open wound on his buttock had a poor prognosis and was unlikely to heal for months at best.Meunier had been tetraplegic since a spinal cord injury in 2022. His January stay in the emergency department at Saint-Jérôme Hospital was his third visit this past winter for a respiratory infection.“Every time we go to the hospital, it’s my duty to tell them that Normand is quadriplegic and needs an alternating pressure mattress,” his partner Sylvie Brosseau told Radio-Canada. “I don’t understand how this can happen; a mattress is the most basic thing….
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