Denied medical assistance in dying in Ottawa, she is going to Brampton

An Ottawa woman who's tried for years to get approved for medical assistance in dying says the long wait has significantly reduced her quality of life, and she hopes others will face fewer barriers as she prepares to travel five hours away for the procedure next week.

Margaret (Maggie) Bristow describes her chronic pain as "intolerable" and "paralyzing," living with degenerative disc disease, fibromyalgia, spinal stenosis, arthritis in the spine as well as bulging discs and bone spurs.

"It feels like people are taking ice picks and shoving them into my chest.… My skin feels like it's being burned off my body 24/7," said Bristow from her couch, sitting as still as she could.

She said for two decades, she has slept sitting because of her back pain.

"For the last little while, it just feels like my bottom of my spine is going to come out of my skin," said Bristow, wincing in pain.

Bristow describes her successful career decades ago in the aerospace industry as "one of the best times of my life." She was also passionate about fostering shelter dogs, and fondly tells stories about falling in love with each of them.

But starting in 1998, the pain began and her health started to decline significantly.

WATCH | Bristow describes her journey: 

After seeing a neurologist, neurosurgeons, pain specialists and trying various therapies and opioid medications for her chronic pain, Bristow said "nothing really worked on me."

Bristow said she applied for medical assistance in dying, also called MAID, three times since the procedure was decriminalized in 2016 — twice prior and once after the recent legislative changes in 2021 broadened the eligibility criteria for patients.

All three times, she said, her Ottawa assessors declared her ineligible.

"I could have followed another route, instead of [them] dragging me and making me wait, making me hopeful. They chose to make my life horrible," said Bristow. 

When she inquired why she got denied recently, Bristow said she was told her assessor wasn't "comfortable" approving her.

"They left me, tossed to the side, like, suffer."