Ottawa woman with rare pain disorder denied medically assisted death
Ophelia Brown and her family have been turned away after months of fighting for access to medical assistance in dying (MAID).
It's a decision the 22-year-old Ottawa woman and her family never thought they would have to make.
“It’s been awful, watching her lose the ability to do the things she loves and lose her future,” said her mother Sheila Craig.
After more than a decade of severe pain, battling a rare disease called complex regional pain syndrome, Ophelia Brown and her parents, Sheila Craig and Ian Brown, decided to apply for a medically assisted death.
“There just isn’t anything worth living for anymore; it’s just pain and all I can see ahead of me is the pain getting worse. The best way I can describe it is it wasn’t time until it was time,” Ophelia said.
Complex regional pain syndrome is a condition that causes excess and prolonged pain that is much greater than normal. In chronic and severe cases, the pain can be disabling.
“When she talked about ending her life, as awful as it is as a parent to hear that, we totally understood,” said Craig.
As of March 2021, there have been changes to the medically assisted dying law.
Patients are no longer required to have a foreseeable natural death—a condition that will worsen over time may qualify.
That change allowed Ophelia to apply, but she was denied and told her case was too complex.
“No doctor is willing to touch her case; no doctor is willing to actually assess her. It’s just been devastating for all of us,” said Craig.
The Ottawa Hospital handles local assisted death requests. In a statement, they said doctors "have the right to choose whether or not to participate on a case-by-case basis."
“The course of doing MAID assessments is a very complicated and complex process. You’re not always going to find clinicians agreeing and sometimes clinicians will disagree with the patients,” said Dr. Chantal Perrot, a MAID physician and board member at Dying with Dignity.
Over the last five months, Ophelia's family has fought for her to receive access to a medically assisted death but has been continually turned away.
Time is not on their side. Ophelia's chronic pain condition is getting worse.
“In the five months I’ve spent fighting for my right to a dignified death, my disease has spread in ways I could not have predicted,” Ophelia said. “My body has shut down, and the emotional toll this process has had on me and my family is immeasurable.”
So, Ophelia and her family have chosen an ever more difficult path.
“She’s suffered for 14 years. How long do you have to suffer to access what is legally your right?” asked her father, Ian Brown.
A feeding tube has been removed and Ophelia will now only receive palliative care.
“Ophelia was quite distressed because it’s not dying with dignity in the same way that MAID would’ve been, in terms of maintaining the quality of life until the end,” said Brown. “There will be more suffering.”
Ophelia and her family will spend the remaining time they have together hoping to make lasting memories and fulfilling her final wishes, but it's not the end they hoped for; it will actually be worse.
“It’s been utterly brutal and not at all the way the last few months of our daughter's life should’ve been,” Craig said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
'Sophisticated' cyberattacks detected on B.C. government networks, premier says
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Police handcuff man trying to enter Drake's Toronto mansion
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
Biden says he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if they launch major invasion of Rafah
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs to start for Canucks in Game 1 vs. Oilers
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs will start in net for the Canucks as Vancouver kicks off a second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night.
Nijjar murder suspect says he had Canadian study permit in immigration firm's video
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer agrees to settle more than 10K lawsuits over Zantac cancer risk: Bloomberg News
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec premier defends new museum on Quebecois nation after Indigenous criticism
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
U.S. presidential candidate RFK Jr. had a brain worm, has recovered, campaign says
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.