Death

One More Day

There was a patient I was asked to see to suture some lacerations. It was interesting because they were actually meant to have MAiD the next day, but they were in so much pain that had slit their wrists to try to end their life.

I went to see them, and they had these lacerations all across their wrists. I hadn't done a lot of suturing at that point in third year, so it took a little while. It was a very out of body experience to be sitting there with this man who just tried to take his own life and was actively in the process of dying. There were some very meaningful comments that he had made. It felt so weird to be stitching him back up when all he wanted was to leave this world. We hear about MAiD in our courses, but to actually sit with someone who was awaiting it, and ultimately tried to take his own life. He was just hours away from dying but he still did that to himself. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be in shoes.  

That's such an interesting paradox, because you've stitched him up, and then the next day he would die. 

It definitely changed me. He was just in so much pain and the ultimate gift that someone could give him at this point was to put an end to his pain and suffering. I was always in support of MAiD and this really made me kind of appreciate how valuable MAiD is as a service to patients in those situations. 

How do you think this will affect your practice in the future? 

I'm very interested in anesthesia and so seeing that element of pain and suffering in the field of anesthesia. A big part of anesthesia is guiding someone through a surgery comfortably and making sure that they're safe. Pain can have a big impact on patients and the fact that we’re able to help care for that element is really important.