Make Healthcare Safer In Canada's Public Hospitals

My mother, Sandra (80, pronounced Saundra) died in a B.C. hospital in a manner that no one in Canada should ever endure. She was fully functional, and yes, a little fragile, when she was slightly short of breath on the morning of November 25, 2014. The events that followed should have never happened. Mom was put into a death corridor of treatment in a Canadian hospital without just cause. In memory of her beautiful spirit, this petition now demands an end to this publicly hidden and barbaric practice. 

A Vancouver area hospital aggressively pushed her into palliative status through distinct acts of cruelty and abuse, offering no additional treatment options. All her initial diagnoses were incorrect and she was given an invasive series of treatments that worsened her condition. Mom was frightened and deathly fearful of her treatment, also victimizing her family through her traumatic and unnecessary death by hospital euthanasia. Her family was not consulted about this desired outcome and the hospital pushed her into a palliative state through periods that included, the lack of food, fluids, and nurse abuse. 

It is playing God and it is akin to murder. This is a terrible way to manage hospital overcrowding and it is simply a barbaric act. The actions of this hospital have forever shaken this family’s confidence in the Canadian medical system.

In her loving memory, we are seeking seven changes across a variety of political jurisdictions in the Province of B.C. and the rest of Canada that would have saved Mom's life and will save future lives:

1) End any and all euthanasia initiatives (disguised as comfort care: Mom was slowly euthanized with “hydromorph”) in all of Canada’s public hospitals. It is playing God and it is akin to murder. This is a terrible way to manage hospital overcrowding and it is simply a barbaric act.  The actions of this hospital have forever shaken this family’s confidence in the Canadian medical system.  Only in a very few and WELL REGULATED cases should this ever be allowed.  If this was not allowed, the hospital would have tried harder to source her breathlessness on admission.

2) Eliminate Provincial government fees and charges to all family physicians so they can have free and open access to hospitals. Continuity of care through advice from her local physician would have assisted her initial assessment and likely saved Mom’s life.  She sat in ER for two days without food, or water, and they didn’t do enough to source the issue.  Related to this: there must be a way for family doctor records, notes, and treatment plans, to be made available through network sharing.

3) Provide clear communication options to the family about treatment options on hospital admission.  For example, we can treat everything, or just a couple things, or maybe you just want go home and be comfortable.  We would have preferred to take Mom home with just oxygen, then followed up with her family doctor. Mom would, I am certain, still be alive if this were possible.  Give patients the options first.

4) Eliminate government subsidised liability insurance policies for doctors.  A Canadian doctor should be reminded through the payment of their insurance that they are accountable legally and through the Hippocratic Oath.  Life is not something to casually discard. We believe Mom was written off early by the hospital and they created a story of a doomed woman and carried it through, causing her earlier death than a more caring system would allow.  U.S. doctors pay for their own liability insurance, thus creating incentive to provide a positive outcome.

5) Overhaul B.C.’s Family Compensation Act (and every other province) to include suable damages other than just wages by an injured, or dead, person. The current act marginalizes society’s most vulnerable (the elderly, disabled, and those less fortunate) if they are mistreated by the medical system and society at large.  The only suable damages against malpractice are loss of wages and loss of opportunity. Bring law, justice, and accountability to the table.

6) Develop hospital policies around home care. If an individual caregiver is competent, they should be allowed to care for their loved one at home with a few necessary practical instruments. Mom didn’t want to be at the hospital. Anxiety, worry, poor sleep, and restricted meals and fluids for long periods played a huge role in her stress and breathing problems that were then improperly treated with a breathing tube.  They were intentional and prime factors in her decline.  I was capable of providing this.

7) Make sensitivity training for all nurses mandatory. Put them in the bed of a beautifully vulnerable 80-year-old woman who fears, sees, and knows her life may be fading before her eyes.  Some of Mom's nurses were outstanding, but Mom was also physically abused by a nurse while cleaning her.  Then telling mom and myself in a loud voice, “You were told there’s nothing we can do for you..!!”  We were never told this, but her admission was telling. This was the plan all along. Mom was so beat up by this point that we had to release her to palliative care the next day.  There isn't any room in modern healthcare for this deplorable conduct and abuse of any person in a civilized country like Canada.