New CCB Futility Dispute: Rodrigues v. Sunnybrook

The Toronto Star reports on yet another futility dispute (the fifth by their count) at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.  It was recently heard by the Ontario Consent & Capacity Board.  Joaquim Silva Rodrigues has been at the Sunnybook ICU since August 2012.



After he was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy two years ago, 73-year-old Rodrigues repeatedly told his family that he wanted to live. "Don’t let me die.  Stop it from progressing. . . . If that doesn’t work, don’t let them kill me."  Rodrigues said that he would rather suffer and remain in the company of his family than surrender to an unwanted death.  That is what his wife and son have demanded on his behalf from his physicians at Sunnybrook.



But on May 14, without the consent of his family, Rodrigues’ physicians placed a note in his chart saying he has "no reasonable hope of recovery or improvement" and that they have decided to withhold mechanical ventilation in the event of a medical emergency requiring life-saving treatment.  Clinicians determined that Rodrigues has "no chances of recovery."  "There’s no clear benefit in prolonging life when you cannot tell whether the life that’s being prolonged is actually worth living for. . . . We’re prolonging life for suffering and pain."