A 51-year-old woman from Ontario with a serious sensitivity to chemicals has died from medical suicide after her desperate search for affordable housing without cigarette smoke and chemical cleaners failed, defenders say.
The woman’s assisted death appears to be the first in the world for someone diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), a chronic condition also called environmental disease or environmental allergies, say patient support groups and doctors familiar with her case.
“The government sees me as rubbish, complaining, useless and useless,” Sofia said in a video shot on February 14, eight days before her death, and shared with CTV News by one of her friends.
She died after frantic efforts by friends, supporters and even her doctors to get a safe and affordable home in Toronto. She also left behind letters showing a desperate two-year search for help, asking local, provincial and federal officials to help find a home away from the smoke and chemicals sweeping through her apartment.
Sofia asked a supporter to share her correspondence with the media, but demanded that her real name not be used to protect her family. She also did not seek media attention before her death, friends say, fearing her expulsion and delay in medical treatment .
“This man has been begging for help for years, two years, writing everywhere, calling everywhere, begging for healthy housing,” said Rohini Paris, president of the Quebec Environmental Health Association (ASEQ-EHAQ).
Paris said she spoke to Sofia every day after learning that the woman had applied and was approved for death by medical assistance. The Quebec group was helping patients in Ontario with MCS after a similar organization in Ontario closed years ago due to lack of funding.
“Not that she didn’t want to live,” said Paris from her home in Saint-Sauveur, Que. “She couldn’t live like that.”
Studies show that many of the symptoms of MCS dissipate when chemicals are removed from a person’s environment. But, like Canadians across the country, Sofia had to spend a lot of time at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions.
The letters she writes say that smoking cigarettes and indoor cigarettes is increasing, sending fumes through the ventilation system of her apartment building in Scarborough. More chemical cleaners were used in the corridors, which worsened her symptoms. She confined herself to her bedroom – or “dungeon”, as she called it – for most of the pandemic, sealing vents to protect cigarette smoke and pots not to enter her compartment.
Sofia’s apartment was run by the Canadian Salvation Army. According to letters provided to CTV News, Sofia writes to employees at all levels of government, the apartment has been renovated to allow her to live in her bedroom, and the vents are sealed to prevent smoke. However, she said the landlord had refused other premises to supplement the room with heating and air conditioning.
“My landlord does not believe that something is wrong with me and refuses to do anything else to help me (yes) to make this apartment safe for me. “I gave up hope and applied for – and now I’m qualifying for Maid,” she wrote.
In an email to CTV News, the Salvation Army said it was “deeply saddened to hear about a former resident moving into one of our Grace Communities’ apartments.” We send our heartfelt condolences and prayers to family, friends and loved ones at this time. ”
Asked about specific allegations made by Sofia about her situation and lack of accommodation, Salvation Army spokeswoman Caroline Knight said: “Thank you for the opportunity to comment – we have nothing more to add.
CTV News also contacted the environmental clinic at the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, where Sofia was a patient, but hospital doctors were not available for comment.
Four Toronto doctors were aware of Sofia’s case, and they also wrote to federal government officials about housing and people with disabilities on her behalf. In that letter, doctors confirmed that her symptoms had improved in a cleaner air environment and asked for help in finding or building a home without chemicals.
“We, the doctors, find it INADMISSIBLE that there is no solution to this situation other than medical care in case of death,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by Dr. Lynn Marshall, environmental physician, Dr. Chantal Perot, family physician and MAiD provider, Dr. Justin Dembo, psychiatrist, and Dr. James White, family physician and psychotherapist. All the doctors who wrote the letter refused to talk to CTV News.
“It was an easy decision,” said Dr. Riina Bray, a Toronto-based doctor who treats people with environmental sensitivities. “She just had to be helped to find a suitable place to live, where there was no smoke and through the vents.”
“If people have to go and kill themselves, that would be a very unfortunate thing and it would be heard by the rest of the world because it’s not acceptable,” Bray said.
The main problem is that there is no government agency to help people with environmental sensitivities get chemical-free housing.
Paris said that Sofia’s letters and the doctors’ writings did not provoke answers from any of the employees to whom they were addressed.
In an email to friends, Sofia suggested that her death was in some way a demonstration of protest against the lack of response to her and her doctors’ requests. “If death helps me show the government that those of us with MCS will continue to have a Maid if they don’t take action soon, then I’m glad I can help someone else not have to suffer the way I am suffering, “she wrote. .
WHAT IS MCS?
Environmental allergies are a condition obscured by controversy and mistrust, even in the medical community. MCS can occur either through a single exposure to high levels of chemicals or constant exposure to low levels. Some people become hypersensitive to common chemicals used in perfumes, cleaners, pesticides and smoke.
A 2014 study found that about 2.4% of Canadians, or more than 770,000, were diagnosed by a healthcare provider with MCS.
Some affected people have mild symptoms. Others become completely disabled and unable to work.
The MCS is also considered a disability by the Ontario and Canadian Human Rights Commission. However, there are controversies, as some researchers believe that some of the symptoms are associated with anxiety and depression.
However, there are three specialized hospital clinics in Canada treating MCS, in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax.
Bonnie Brighton, a Montreal rights activist, says she has a sticker with Sofia’s name on her computer after working desperately to find accommodation and a solution to no avail.
“She was desperate to try to do something and stood up more than anyone I’ve seen,” Brayton told CTV News.
“She was not given a choice,” Brighton said, adding that Sofia lives on disability benefits and did not have the means to find a better apartment on her own. “Sofia’s death is a tragedy and a disgrace for this country… Less effort is to die”
Friends organized a fundraiser and raised approximately $ 12,000 to try to help Sofia get a better home, away from chemicals and smoke. But until then, Sofia had an appointment to suffer a medical death.
“If nothing appears before February 22, please know that everything is fine,” Sofia wrote in an email in early 2022. I already have a way out. I don’t have the energy to fight anymore. “
A CASE THAT COLLECTS INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION
“I find it amazing that this happened,” said Dr. Claudia Miller, an honorary professor in the Department of Allergy / Immunology and Environmental Health at the University of Texas, about Sophie’s death.
Her research has uncovered biological causes that cause the immune system to overreact in people who are sensitive to the environment. The theory is that either a brief exposure to chemicals or repeated low-level contact with them can cause an allergic reaction that can alter the functioning of some immune cells.
The solutions, she said, are to clean up the environment to prevent new cases and make homes and apartments smoke and chemical-free. She has never heard of a patient receiving an assisted death instead of a suitable home.
“This is a sad statement. “People are so desperate they want to die,” Miller said in an interview with CTV News at his home in San Antonio. “I think this is a complete indication of a huge failure – a social failure. It’s … such a bad statement not only for the Canadian government, but for any government that allows it to happen, “she said.
On March 17, 2021, the revised MAID legislation came into force, expanding who can claim assisted death. Previously, only those whose natural death was reasonably foreseeable – called first-line patients – were considered. These are usually patients with terminal cancer and other fatal diseases. The new law allows those whose natural death is “NOT reasonably foreseeable” to request and be approved for SERVICE. These are called two-way cases.
Sofia was in this category. Two physicians must approve the patient’s request and “must consult a clinician who has such ‘expertise’ in the patient’s illness.”
There is a 90-day waiting period to determine “whether certain treatments or services could help reduce their suffering, such as counseling services, mental health and disability support services, community services”.
“This is a worrying case,” said Trudeau Lemens, a professor of health law at the University of Toronto who is studying the expansion of MAID in Canada. “I think it highlights the fears that some of us had in enlargement …
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