Canada woman with long COVID applies for assisted suicide: report

News

By Katherine Donlevy

A Canadian woman’s grueling bout with long COVID has robbed her of her life savings, the ability to get out of bed and the simple joys of living — forcing her to seek out assisted suicide, according to a report.

Tracey Thompson, 55, from Toronto, applied for the country’s legal euthenasia program after it became clear that her life with the incurable disease would not improve.

“My quality of life with this illness is almost nonexistent, it’s not a good life,” she told the DailyMail.

“I don’t do anything. It is painfully boring. It’s profoundly isolating.”

Thompson has spent roughly 22 hours every day painfully stuck in bed since contracting the novel coronavirus as it first swept across the globe in 2020.

Other than suffering a barrage of symptoms that have left her unable to cook for herself or even read, Thompson has been living off pennies since losing her job soon after contracting COVID.

With the daunting expectation that she will soon run out of money and the ability to sustain herself, Thompson applied in December 2022 to Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), a program that permits people to end their lives if they are experiencing an incurable disease.

MAID first became legal in 2016 for terminal patients but expanded just one year after Thompson fell ill to include individuals enduring an “intolerable” and “irreversible” illness, disease or disability despite not nearing the end of their natural life.

Thompson gradually became sicker after contracting COVID, experiencing a decline in her cognitive abilities, trouble breathing and the inability to exercise or exert much energy.

Once a professional chef, Thompson now mostly only consumes various medications and a meal replacement shake because long COVID has caused her to become “allergic to everything.”

Mustering enough energy to get to the bathroom is the “biggest part of my day,” she told the outlet.

Even reading, watching television or listening to music while stuck in bed has been nearly impossible because her brain fog has grown so severe that she “can’t process the info.”

Thompson spends each day alone — she was forced to give her dog away after it became clear she barely had the strength to take care of herself.

“Then I wake up and I do the whole thing again,” she said.

On a good day, Thompson might successfully sit up in her chair and scroll on her computer, and twice a month she walks around the block.

She has blown through her life savings to pay for housing, food and medical treatments, the latter of which has proven incredibly expensive.

Since her long COVID detection, Thompson has also been diagnosed with a plethora of other illnesses, including myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS).

Thompson told CTV News Toronto that her decision to end her life was primarily “a financial consideration” due to her strained circumstances, not to fulfill her wish to die.

“I’m very happy to be alive. I still enjoy life. Birds chirping, small things that make up a day are still pleasant to me, they’re still enjoyable. I still enjoy my friends,” she told the outlet in July 2022.

“There’s a lot to enjoy in life, even if it’s small.”

Thompson couldn’t share what her application status with MAID is, claiming she was legally restricted from disclosing the details.

More than 13,200 people died via MAID in 2022, accounting for 4.1% of all deaths in Canada, data shows.

The program has been controversial since it was unveiled, and has only grown more contentious as it has expanded to include more groups.

Canada recently came under fire for considering adding another subsect of the population for eligibility: terminally ill minors.

The change would allow those under the age of 18 to be euthanized, a procedure the current policy blocks.