A Canadian woman experiencing ongoing long covid symptoms more than two years after catching the virus has applied for voluntary euthanasia.
Tracey Thompson, a Toronto resident in her 50s, told CTV News she had begun applying for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) due to her enduring illness and lack of financial support. MAiD first became legal in Canada in 2016.
“MAiD is exclusively a financial consideration,” she told CTV News Toronto.
After 26 months of lost income since the onset of symptoms, no foreseeable ability to work and an absence of support, Thompson said she expects to run out of money in about five months.
“My choices are basically to die slowly and painfully, or quickly. Those are the options that are left,” Thompson said.
Thompson said in addition to severe fatigue, her symptoms included being unable to read books or text longer than a tweet, blurring vision around sunset, difficulty digesting food, altered sense of taste and smell, difficulty breathing and scars on her heart from swelling due to myocarditis.
Long covid is ill-defined and difficult to diagnose. Some experts claim roughly 5 per cent of people who contract the virus go on to develop long-term symptoms including shortness of breath, fatigue, fever, headaches and “brain fog”.
Thompson stressed she didn’t want to die.
“I’m very happy to be alive,” she said.
“I still enjoy life. Birds chirping, small things that make up a day are still pleasant to me, they’re still enjoyable. I still enjoy my friends. There’s a lot to enjoy in life, even if it’s small.”
But she said she didn’t think she could survive without an income.
“I don’t relish the idea of suffering for months to come to the same conclusion,” she said.
“When support is not coming, things aren’t going to change. It seems irrational to put myself through that just to die in the end.”
Since Thompson’s illness is not clearly outlined in the Ontario Disability Support Programme (ODSP) eligibility, she believes it could take years to qualify. Even if she did qualify, she says the whole sum of the monthly support would, at best, cover her rent.
“That would be the entirety of my living budget,” she said.
A year after Thompson became ill, MAiD legislation was revised in Canada. Previously, only those whose natural death was reasonably foreseeable — otherwise known as Track One patients — were eligible to apply for MAiD. For instance, patients with terminal illnesses.
The legislation amended in March 2021 has seen the creation of a Track Two patient. Now, Canadians enduring an “intolerable” and “irreversible” illness, disease or disability who may not be near the natural end of their lives can qualify for assisted death as well.
Thompson has sought one doctor’s approval for MAiD and is waiting to hear from a second specialist. To be considered, applicants need two independent doctors or nurse practitioners to confirm they meet the criteria. That goes alongside a written request for MAiD signed by the person who is applying for it.
Applicants have until the moment before the procedure to withdraw consent. Ultimately, the decision is in their hands once the criteria are reached.
While Thompson is still working through the necessary steps, she’s confident she’ll get approval.
“As best I know I would meet the criteria. I’m very ill.”
“There is no treatment. There is no cure. You don’t have to be terminally ill,” Thompson said.
Sources
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