Facing another retirement home lockdown, 90-year-old chooses medically assisted deathhttps://www.ctvnews.ca/health/facing-another-retirement-home-lockdown-90-year-old-chooses-medically-assisted-death-1.5197140'Russell, described by her family as exceptionally social and spry, was one such person. Her family says she chose a medically-assisted death (MAID) after she declined so sharply during lockdown that she didn’t want to go through more isolation this winter.
“Being mobile was everything to my mom,” her daughter, Tory, told CTV News.
“My mother was extremely curious, and she was very interested in every person she met and every idea that she came across so she was constantly reading, going to different shows and talks. [She] was frequently talking about people she met and their life stories, very curious, open minded. So for 90, she was exceptional.”
“She, almost overnight, went from a very active lifestyle to a very limited life, and they had, very early on, a complete two week confinement just to her room,” Tory said.
During those two weeks, since she couldn’t exercise by walking to the library or doing her own shopping, Russell would stand up and sit down, again and again in her room, counting the times, her daughter said.
It was during that more restricted, two-week confinement to Russell’s room that her family saw the decline.
“She was just drooping,” Tory said. “It was contact with people that was like food to her, it was like, oxygen. She would be just tired all the time because she was under stimulated.”
Tory said that Russell, still sharp at 90, had a clearer view of the future than many officials at the time, predicting early on in the pandemic that things would continue into 2021.
“She would always say, the COVID is in charge, you know, no matter what the politicians say, the virus is in charge,” Tory said. “That did hasten her desire to apply for medical assistance in dying
“She just truly did not believe that she wanted to try another one of those two-week confinements into her room,” her daughter said.
“She was able to direct a peaceful, pain free death on her own time and avoid a great fear of hers, which was to endure winter and lockdowns.”'
