Trish Nichols and Gary Nichols

gntnichols [at] telus [dot] net

Our brother, Alan Nichols, received medical assistance in dying, assisted suicide, July 26th, 2019, when MAiD was still reserved for those whose death was foreseeable. Alan did not meet the MAiD criteria. He did not have a foreseeable death. He struggled with recurrent mental health crises but always recovered.

June 16, 2019, Alan was placed unwillingly in an ambulance, taken to Chilliwack Hospital, admitted under the Mental Health Act for his own safety and protection after a neighbor called the RCMP for a wellness check. Gary flew from Edmonton to see Alan that very day. Alan asked Gary to “bust him out” but Gary thought he would be safer in the hospital and get the help he needed. My husband lives each day now with deep regret for making the decision to entrust Alan’s wellness to a medical facility.

Alan was transferred to psychiatry next day. He refused visitors, including family, which disturbed us though we trusted his treating team. Our family received no hospital updates until 8 days after his admittance to ER. Alan’s doctor said she would check with staff, gather information and asked Gary to call her back to discuss further.

Gary called back, learning Alan’s doctor had vanished for a 3-week holiday. For the next 3 weeks our family was misled by his social worker, assuring us Alan was doing well. Unknown to us then, on July 19th an attempt to give Alan MAiD ended in failure. The hospital had not followed the prescribed MAiD protocols as no doctor was present, no family had been notified and they had no clear instruction where to send Alan’s dead body.

Alan’s doctor called Gary three days after this botched attempt announcing Alan would receive MAiD at the end of the week. She was delighted Alan had agreed to a final visit with us, suggested we not make any waves, or he could deny our visit. After driving 12 hours, they denied the visit until the next day. It had been five weeks since his admittance to emergency for his own safety, and we were finally allowed to see him.

Alan was not making sense about things we discussed. He refused to wear his cochlear apparatus, so his ability to effectively communicate was difficult. Fear began to grip us, and we began pleading and begging with medical staff to stop this MAiD. We asked for a delay as we could not reach our oldest brother Wayne. Alan went into a fit of rage screaming uncontrollably. I asked his doctor right then: “Is this what you call a sound mind?” Alan was euthanized minutes later.

On Alan’s MAiD form hearing loss as stated as reason for application. How could doctors accept, approve, and administer a death for this, when Alan did not have a terminal illness and his hearing had been corrected and all this while he had been involuntarily admitted for suicide protection?

Alan did not have a valid diagnosis for MAiD. He was eating, walking, talking according to his social worker. So why did they keep him in hospital if they were not treating him for being a danger to himself? Placing him involuntarily in hospital care is what put Alan in imminent danger. We still have no answers after repeatedly trying to have his death investigated.

Would you feel safe now bringing loved suicidal ones to seek medical care for recovery when there is no oversight or stringent safeguards surrounding a procedure that kills people?

Alan chose to live alone, managing his daily affairs. He owned his condominium, had money in the bank. Each week family would pick him up, take him to buy groceries and do his banking. Alan didn’t rely on our health care system for support. His family and neighbors lovingly kept an eye out for him. It was our health care system and this legislation that failed him, resulting in his premature and wrongful death.

Three years we have spent now in this nightmare. We are so angry and insulted at how “they” all just turned their heads, listening to us begging for Alan’s life. Do you know what this has done to our family? With no justice, no accountability, no stringent safeguards to prevent such a wrongful death, how can our government even be looking at any expansion of MAiD?

There are currently no laws protecting the vulnerable or their families FROM MAiD. Most Canadians think MAiD is to alleviate the physical suffering at the end of a life, not a ploy to end a life.