Providing comfort or palliative care to a patient in the operating room is “very unusual,” according to the Crown’s expert witness at the trial of Isabelle Desormeau. The former anesthesiologist is accused of having “euthanized” a patient at the end of his life after an operation.
Published yesterday at 2:43 p.m.
“In 30 years of experience as an anesthesiologist, I would like to emphasize the fact that offering euthanasia or palliative or comfort care immediately after an operation on a patient who is still asleep is very unusual,” concludes Dr.r Thomas Schricker, specialist in anesthesiology, in a report filed as evidence.
The Dr Schricker is director of the department of anesthesia in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at McGill University. Friday morning, Judge Marc-André Dagenais recognized him as an expert witness in anesthesiology. His expertise in analyzing this specific case at trial was contested by the defense.
Isabelle Desormeau, a 53-year-old former anesthesiologist, is accused of having committed the involuntary homicide of Raymond Bissonnette at the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital in Laval. According to the Crown, the accused “precipitated” the death of Mr. Bissonnette, even though he did not want to die like this. Furthermore, his family was not clearly informed.
According to the evidence presented, Raymond Bissonnette underwent emergency surgery on the night of 1is November 2019. At the operating table, the surgeon found that it was impossible to “cure” the patient due to the necrosis of his small intestine. According to the surgeon, the patient was at the “end of life”. He then closed the wound so that Mr. Bissonnette would receive “comfort care”.
However, it seems that doctors have not agreed on the nature of this “comfort care”. Once the surgeon left, Isabelle Desormeau removed the patient’s respiratory assistance and injected him with medication. Gestures which “hastened” the victim’s death, according to the prosecution. Raymond Bissonnette died about 20 minutes later.
According to the Dr Schricker, withdrawal of ventilation and administration of large doses of drugs caused the patient’s death. Isabelle Desormeau, an experienced anesthesiologist, must have been well aware that such a cocktail would kill the patient, according to the expert.
“We can also conclude that Dr Desormeau committed euthanasia,” indicates the Dr Schricker in his report.
According to him, it is preferable to consult the entire operating room team before offering palliative care or comfort care.
“When we talk about deaths, we need a consensus. […] During surgery, stress can prevent us from making consensual, informed decisions. Palliative care takes time. We cannot make such decisions in the operating room,” he testified this week.
Moreover, “comfort” care is not necessarily aimed at killing the person, he specifies.
The trial continues in November at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse.
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