Winnipeg woman who chose to die with medical assistance said struggle for home care help led to decision
CBC
Sathya Dhara Kovac, 44, chose to die this week, even though she didn't want to go just yet.
The Winnipeg woman's death was facilitated by professionals through Manitoba's medical assistance in dying program.
Kovac lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease that took her mother, grandmother and uncle. Her condition was worsening, but she felt she had more life to live — just not enough home care support to do so.
"Ultimately it was not a genetic disease that took me out, it was a system," Kovac wrote in an obituary to loved ones.
"There is desperate need for change. That is the sickness that causes so much suffering. Vulnerable people need help to survive. I could have had more time if I had more help."
On Monday morning, support worker and friend Shayla Brantnall rubbed Kovac's head as she took her final breaths at home in her sunroom, surrounded by a small group of people and things that brought her comfort — a photo of her dog, candles, crystals.
But according to Kovac's own obituary, statements she made to the Winnipeg Free Press and things she shared with friends, she had grown exhausted at her failed efforts to get more help with basic needs at home, and that is what drove her to access a medically assisted death.
"It's hard because mentally she was there.... She accepted the changes in her body, but without enough support, how could anyone keep going?" said Brantnall, who supported Kovac three days a week over the past year and a half.
"You're constantly stressed, you're constantly struggling, like, 'How am I going to get to the bathroom? How am I going to eat food?' That's not really a great quality of life either."
Kovac lived alone at home with her dog. She didn't want to give that up to live in a facility, said her friend Janine LeGal.
She said Kovac did not tell the panel of professionals who assessed her application for a medically assisted death that she was driven to seek MAID due to a lack of adequate home care support, fearing that if she shared her full rationale they would deny her.
"Her death was imminent in the sense that she had ALS, so she would have died from that at some point, but ... she could have been around for several more years, living a good life," said LeGal.
"It's really painful for me to think about the fact that she is gone because our society doesn't focus on giving people what they need."
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said alternate supports are explored before MAID is granted to applicants.
