A shocking case of life and death has emerged in Canada where an 83-year-old Christian grandmother was euthanized against her will.
The case involves Brigitte Stegemann, known to her family as “GG” or “Oma,” who had been diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer in February.
Her granddaughter who shares the same first name, Brigitte Kranendonk, says she had to inform Stegemann of the bad news, according to the Daily Mail.
“I used very frank terms. I said: ‘Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?'”
Her grandmother was in visible disbelief and began crying for 45 minutes.
“She was bawling. Inconsolable,” Kranendonk recounted.
The Daily Mail reports:
In a cognitive test, designed to ascertain whether she was sound of mind enough to consent to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), Stegemann “got every question wrong,” believing her two living siblings to be dead, according to Kranendonk.
Yet 48 hours after she wept uncontrollably at the notion of MAiD, Stegemann is said to have died with her hands clasped in prayer, covered in her own blood due to a botched first attempt at connecting the IV, administered by a nurse allegedly not wearing gloves.
Kranendonk is currently in the process of desperately appealing to the Chief Coroner’s Office in Ontario, as well as the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police, in a bid to ascertain whether what happened the morning of July 10 at The Pearl care home in Cannifton was legal.
Bereaved and distraught, she claims MAiD practitioners took advantage of her grandmother’s vulnerability to perform the procedure, which she alleges was carried out without express consent.
“She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity,” Kranendonk says, her rage and sadness visible.
She suspects the MAiD practitioners were inappropriately ideologically motivated, and believes the chain of events leading up to the procedure should be investigated.
It is understood that the practitioners and care home, who have not commented publicly, maintain that Stegemann had legally consented to proceed.
Kranendonk detailed the gruesome final moments, saying: “There was a phenomenal amount of blood,” recalling how the nurse could not find the proper vein in her right arm to insert the IV, then switching to the left after having “poked her about three or four times with the needle.”
“It is all over my Oma’s arm, it is all over her nightie, soaking through her pillow, all over the sheets, there is so much blood.
“And throughout all this time, mind you, the nurse is not wearing gloves.”
In February, Kranendonk had to persuade her grandmother to receive a medical port, a small device inserted under the skin to provide a direct route for medicine to reach a vein.
Upon its fitting, the 83-year-old repeatedly ripped it off, shouting: “I don’t want the death shot!”
The Daily Mail adds:
It was only in the aftermath of Stegemann’s death that Kranendonk – overwhelmed with grief – began to believe that something went awfully wrong.
She has subsequently learnt that nurses are strictly prohibited from pressuring a patient to pursue MAiD, and that all the correct paperwork for MAiD to take place must be submitted before a death date can be determined.
Stegemann’s paperwork was completed after her death, her granddaughter claims.
“She did not consent the morning of the procedure,” Kranendonk says, steadfast in her conclusion that her grandmother was euthanized against her will.
She has consistently asked The Pearl to hand over her grandmother’s medical records, but all of her requests have been refused, she says.
She regrets not applying for a legal injunction to prevent the MAiD from occurring, but she also didn’t realize she had the right to ask for one at the time.
“I was flying blind,” she says. And crucially, her grandmother still needed medical attention in those final weeks.
“We live in Canada, where medical care is not always easy to get. She still needed medical care. I could not just scoop her up and bring her home,” she says.
She trusted the government, and the medical establishment, not to take advantage of her grandmother. In the months since July, that trust has completely shattered.
She says she has “settled a lot into prayer,” and is sharing her story as a way to give more education to care providers who may find themselves in similar scenarios.
A spokesman for Belleville Police told the Daily Mail: “This incident is currently open and under investigation with our Criminal Investigations Division. We are unable to provide any additional information at this time.”
Canada has one of the highest rates of euthanasia in the world, with MAiD accounting for 4.7 percent of the deaths in 2023.
Author Patrick D. Hahn noted on X: “‘Euthanized against her will?’ Is there a word for that?”
Follow Joe on X @JoeKovacsNews
