How about me.
Am I a 'reliable source?
Because I'm trying to save the lives of disabled, injured, ill, and elderly that Canada's decided are better off dead, better to put us down like old dogs rather than RX opioids. This is only one story, one soul lost.
Maggie Bristow was a dear friend of mine. She was a Complex Pain Patient ripped of the RX opioids that gifted her function and QoL when the 2017 CDN Opioid RX Guidelines were implemented in 2018.
Maggie begged for years to have her RX opioids returned to her. Without them, she went from being disabled but able to work full-time in the early years, and when she was no longer able to work she rescued shelter animals and trained them to be emotional support dogs. She gave them to a needy person or family, enriching their lives immeasurably with the gift of love. She saved lives. She mattered.
Without the RX meds she'd been stable on for decades, she went from living, to 100% disabled and bedridden. She was forced onto Suboxone, which did absolutely nothing to manage her pain, and made her feel disconnected and extremely cognitively impaired.
Canada was entirely capable of managing her pain. It did for years. And then it refused. Instead, she was left to suffer unsurvivable pain. For years.
Maggie begged for life. For years, she begged for life. Canada denied. And then she gave up, and begged for death. Canada killed her.
I spent Maggie's last night on earth with her. I brought over her requested last meal, much like the condemned murderer on Death row. I brought a massive amount of Chinese food, her favourite. I also brought over a mickey of Vodka and a mickey of Kahlua, so we could have White Russians. We had a feast before us, but neither one of us was particularly hungry. We also had maybe 3/4 of a drink each.
She kept giving me little things, a collection of pictures done by an incredibly talented artist that she got in Mexico, a collection of special knickknacks, and she tried to give me some clothes. She wanted to have her special things cared for, cared about, and she wanted me to have them to remember her by.
She also wanted people to know her story, so perhaps her death wouldn't be as pointless and unnecessary as it was. We dreamed of change, of "Maggie's Bill", a Bill of Rights established to protect people with pain. I vowed to do everything in my power to make that happen. This gave her a small measure of peace in an inexcusably inhumane act by Canada.
I stayed late, leaving at 3am. Neither of us wanted the night, the friendship, the life to end, and we were both exhausted and in severe pain. I'd need a couple of weeks in bed on the heating pad to break the pain flare. Maggie? She had a long day ahead, a 7hr Ambulance ride - bumpy and uncomfortable, but she didn't have to worry about dealing with a pain flare. She'd be dead by 3.
Canada denied her RX opioids for pain, tortured her for years, and then killed her.
Maggie is but one, I know many more. The annual PHAC Reports on MAID summarize the data - at least 20% of the non-terminal people Canada kills off have chronic / degenerative pain conditions that were completely manageable, including 12% with rheumatoid arthritis, 8% unspecified chronic pain, plus. PHAC states that approx 60% of non-terminal cases cite pain or fear of untreated pain as the reason for MAID.
Do NOT doubt it. No matter how Canada tries to paint it, no matter how it tries to bury the data-and it is-this country is killing off fully treatable disabled people, after force-tapering them, denying them care that was effective and is completely available, and cheap.
So, you can say, that's one person. There are many more, the stories hit the news every now and then.
How many dead Pain Patients is an acceptable number in your thinking? One? 100? 20,000 a year?
Driving home, my eyes filmed with unshed tears, I ran a red light and nearly hit a car. Then I pulled over and cried.
#RememberMaggie
3pm - August 10th, 2022
#MAIDinCanada