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A granddaughter has shared the heartbreaking words her 83-year-old grandmother said before she was allegedly "euthanized against her will".
Brigitte Stegemann died at The Pearl care home in Cannifton on July 10 under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program, known as MAiD.
Her granddaughter and longtime caregiver, Brigitte Kranendonk, claims Stegemann had previously rejected assisted death and later appeared not to understand that the scheduled procedure would end her life.
"I used very frank terms. I said, 'Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?'", Kranendonk recalled to the Daily Mail.
She said her grandmother immediately started "bawling" and was "inconsolable," before sharing the heart-wrenching words: "I've made a mistake."
"I just kept saying there's no mistake, there's no mistake. You don't have to do this. The doctors are coming on Friday, and you just say no," she told her grandmother.
Kranendonk, a real estate agent, had cared for Stegemann for 12 years and served as her medical power of attorney for six years.
Stegemann, a German-born Christian known as "GG" or "Oma," had been moved into The Pearl as her physical and cognitive health declined.
She was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer in February, but Kranendonk said she still had a good appetite.
When MAiD was previously discussed, Kranendonk said her grandmother was clear.
"No, I don't want that," she recalled Stegemann saying.
But while Kranendonk and her husband were away on a 10-day road trip, the situation changed. On July 3, the granddaughter said she was told the care home planned to arrange a MAiD assessment because Stegemann’s health had deteriorated.
By the time she returned, her grandmother had already undergone her first consultation. "No one called me," she said.
Kranendonk said that when she asked a nurse who had initiated the MAiD conversation, the nurse became "defensive".
"The nurse became very abrasive, very defensive," she said. "She was like, 'Well, I’m just trying to advocate for her. I’m just trying to do what’s right for her.'"
The granddaughter attended Stegemann’s second assessment and said she became worried about how the process was being explained.
"She explains MAiD to my grandmother by saying: 'We’re going to give you medicine, you’re going to feel at peace. And I just want you to know that you won’t have a bowel movement,'" she said.
Kranendonk claimed the doctor used "really loose terms, never using the words death or dying" when speaking to the grandmother, who was severely hearing-impaired and whose first language was not English.
At one point, Kranendonk interjected: "She doesn’t understand what you’re saying." The doctor allegedly responded by telling Stegemann: "We’re going to make sure you won’t have any more pain."
Kranendonk also claims her grandmother struggled during a cognitive assessment.
Stegemann allegedly said she had no siblings despite having 13 and said none were still alive, although Kranendonk says two were.
"I was astonished that she was given the okay," she said.
The doctor later said Stegemann had been "deemed fit for MAiD, and we're going to proceed."
On July 10, Stegemann’s family took her outside for strawberry ice cream and prayers with her pastor.
Kranendonk alleges a nurse later struggled to insert an IV, piercing her grandmother several times.
"There was a phenomenal amount of blood," she said. "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."
When the doctor entered the room, Kranendonk says Stegemann was told she would be given "medicine" and was asked if that was okay.
"My Oma is not moving. She doesn't open her eyes. She doesn't nod. She doesn't say anything, and the doctor just said: 'Okay, well, I'm going to proceed,'" she said.
Stegemann was pronounced dead within 10 minutes.
Kranendonk says her grandmother was so unresponsive that she does not know whether she had already died, was in deep prayer, or died because of MAiD.
She also alleges that no heartbeat was taken before or after the procedure.
"What was concerning, though, is that that morning, I was crying. My grandmother looked at me and said, 'If you don't stop crying, I'm not going to sleep tonight.' She said that to me on Friday morning," Kranendonk said.
The real estate agent insists her grandmother did not give clear final "consent" on the morning of the procedure.
The care home and practitioners involved have not issued public statements per the Daily Mail, although they have reportedly maintained that Stegemann legally consented.
Kranendonk has contacted Ontario’s Chief Coroner’s Office, the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police.
"This incident is currently open and under investigation with our Criminal Investigations Division. We are unable to provide any additional information at this time," a police spokesman said.
The granddaughter now says she regrets not seeking a legal injunction to stop the procedure, though she did not know that was an option.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, she said: "My grandmother was a vulnerable senior who was let down when the doctors and home bypassed every safeguard put in place to protect her - from assessing her mental capacity, to getting her clear, final consent before acting and the home filling out paperwork and having her sign when we were not there, and giving us copies. I will not stop until there is a full investigation into how this was allowed to happen behind closed doors."
Mira Metter, director of Broken Country, a movie about the decline over the last two decades, said the case raises questions about protections for vulnerable patients.
"What is particularly troubling about this case is that it raises questions Canadians should be asking about whether MAID’s safeguards are protecting vulnerable people as intended," Metter said.
"A compassionate healthcare system should ensure that when someone is at their most vulnerable, every reasonable avenue for care and support has been explored before death is presented as an option. MAID may be legal in Canada, but legality cannot be the end of the conversation," she added.
