A Cape Breton woman living with a rare disease says she’s worried hospital wait times will kill her first, so she's considering medically assisted death.
Paulette Corbett was diagnosed a year-and-a-half ago with a rare disease called mesenteric ischemia, which restricts blood flow to the bowel.
Corbett’s family doctor has referred her case to the gastroenterology unit at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, but so far there’s been no response.
Corbett says she’s in agony every time she eats something.
“You go to bed hoping you wake up and it’s better,” she says, “or you go to bed hoping you die in your sleep because it’s been two-and a-half years.”
Corbett says it’s so painful she’s trying not to eat at all, which has resulted in rapid weight loss; she is now down to just 98 pounds.
She has also asked to have a feeding tube put in, but says she has to get a second opinion.
Corbett says multiple doctors have referred her case to the gastroenterology department at the QEII in Halifax, which she says has a wait time of seven or eight months.
Her daughter, Allison, worries her mother will have passed away by then.
“She was in the ER multiple times in the last three weeks,” Allison explains. “She was sent to Halifax for a test. The doctor in Halifax went over to the GI unit and sent a referral saying what an urgent case she was, and she still hasn’t heard anything back.”
In an email to CTV News, the Nova Scotia Health Authority says, “We understand that patients can be worried when they are waiting for referrals for specialized services and encourage them to talk with their family doctor directly about the status of referral or appointment. Patients, their next of kin, or family can also talk with our quality improvement safety leaders directly, and they will follow up if there are questions or concerns about patient care.”
Meanwhile, Corbett says she can’t live with the pain any longer, and has asked her family doctor about medically assisted death.
“I feel like now I’m having to literally beg for my life because they’re not listening to me,” she says. “You, yourself know how your body feels and how it works. I know there’s something drastically not right.”
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.
