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Two days before her Christian grandmother’s assisted dying procedure in Ontario, Canada, Brigitte Kranendonk sat her down to make sure she knew exactly what was going to happen.
‘
asserted
what → see → her
I used very frank terms.
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I → use → terms
I said: “Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?”
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you → say → Friday
The 83-year-old was in visible disbelief and began crying for 45 minutes.
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old → begin → minutes
‘I’ve made a mistake,’ Brigitte Stegemann, known affectionately to her family as ‘GG’ or ‘Oma’, wailed.
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Stegemann → make → GG
‘She was bawling.
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She → bawl → ?
Inconsolable,’ Kranendonk, a real estate agent who shares the same first name with her late grandmother, tells the Daily Mail.
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who → share → Mail
In a cognitive test, designed to ascertain whether she was sound of mind enough to consent to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), Stegemann ‘got every question wrong’, believing her two living siblings to be dead, according to Kranendonk.
uncertain
siblings → design → Kranendonk
Yet 48 hours after she wept uncontrollably at the notion of MAiD, Stegemann is said to have died with her hands clasped in prayer, covered in her own blood due to a botched first attempt at connecting the IV, administered by a nurse allegedly not wearing gloves.
uncertain
hands → weep → gloves
Kranendonk is currently in the process of desperately appealing to the Chief Coroner’s Office in Ontario, as well as the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police, in a bid to ascertain whether what happened the morning of July 10 at The Pearl care home in Cannifton was legal.
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happened → appeal → Cannifton
Bereaved and distraught, she claims MAiD practitioners took advantage of her grandmother’s vulnerability to perform the procedure, which she alleges was carried out without express consent.
uncertain
she → claim → consent
‘She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity,’ Kranendonk says, her rage and sadness visible.
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rage → see → opportunity
She suspects the MAiD practitioners were inappropriately ideologically motivated, and believes the chain of events leading up to the procedure should be investigated.
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chain → suspect → procedure
It is understood that the practitioners and care home, who have not commented publicly, maintain that Stegemann had legally consented to proceed.
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Stegemann → understand → ?
‘No one had ever done MAiD at this residential home before: this was their very first MAiD procedure.
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this → do → home
So I don’t know if they just dropped the ball, because they didn’t know what they were doing.
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they → know → what
The moment of Stegemann's death was anything but peaceful, as she had once wished.
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she → wish → death
Recalling those nightmarish minutes, a traumatised Kranendonk speaks in the present tense, as if the procedure was still happening in slow motion.
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procedure → recall → motion
'There was a phenomenal amount of blood,' she says, describing the way that the nurse failed to find the correct vein in the right arm to insert the IV, before switching to the left – but only after having 'poked her about three or four times with the needle'.
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nurse → be → needle
'It is all over my Oma's arm, it is all over her nightie, soaking through her pillow, all over the sheets, there is so much blood.
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it → soak → sheets
'And throughout all this time, mind you, the nurse is not wearing gloves.'
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nurse → mind → gloves
Another episode that still haunts Kranendonk is from February: she says she had to convince her grandmother to accept a medical port, a small device placed under the skin to provide a direct way for medicine to reach a vein.
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medicine → haunt → vein
After it was fitted, the 83-year-old repeatedly ripped it off, screaming: ‘I don’t want the death shot!’
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death → fit → it
A year and a half before her death, the family made the decision to house Stegemann in The Pearl as her physical and cognitive health began to deteriorate.
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health → make → Pearl
In February, she was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer.
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she → diagnose → cancer
But doctors were not certain about whether the diagnosis meant she had six months to live, or as much time as two years.
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she → mean → years
For the past decade, Kranendonk had been carefully monitoring what her grandmother ate to keep her healthy, including limiting her sugar intake.
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grandmother → monitor → intake
Following the cancer diagnosis, she changed tack and allowed her to eat whatever she craved, deciding she just wanted her grandmother to feel as ‘joyful’ as possible in her final stage of life.
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grandmother → follow → life
She spoke to Stegemann about all options, and even brought up MAiD, explaining what the procedure would entail.
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procedure → speak → what
She remembers her grandmother saying clearly: 'No, I don't want that.'
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I → remember → that
Kranendonk says her religiosity, and the notion of displeasing God, was a large factor in why her German-born grandmother instinctively opposed assisted dying.
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grandmother → say → dying
Then came June, when Kranendonk and her husband went on a 10-day road trip.
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Kranendonk → come → trip
In the past, every time she was away, she received frequent phone calls from the residential home regarding her grandmother’s health.
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she → receive → health
Everything seemed normal.
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Everything → seem → ?
She picked up numerous phone calls, and the doctors didn't discuss a dramatic decline in Stegemann’s health – only that she had fallen over and would need a wheelchair.
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she → pick → wheelchair
But towards the end of the trip, on July 3, Kranendonk received a different kind of call.
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Kranendonk → receive → call
It was from the home, saying they were going to book a MAiD assessment for her grandmother.
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they → say → grandmother
Her health had apparently seriously deteriorated.
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health → deteriorate → ?
The news hit like a ton of bricks.
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news → hit → bricks
Back in Cannifton, Kranendonk anxiously questioned a nurse at the residential home about who had initiated the MAiD conversation.
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who → question → conversation
…and 126 more, not listed.
The Aporia
