“I asked for euthanasia and they denied me, suffering two strokes [accidente cerebrovascular], I have left hemiparesis, I suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), high pulmonary pressure, fibrosis, diabetes, hypertension, the right side of my heart is large, I expel blood from the lungs. I have four surgeries on my spine … ”, this is how Víctor Escobar describes the situation that makes him experience unbearable pain and that leads him to demand his right to die with dignity in Colombia.
A native of Cali, in the southwest of the country, he has become a tweeter and uses the loudspeaker of that social network to insist, beg, and denounce that the procedure is not delayed. His case was echoed again after the failed euthanasia of Martha Sepúlveda, whose story sparked a national debate. This Wednesday, a judge in Medellín ordered the Colombian Pain Institute (Incodol) clinic to coordinate with her the date and time to carry out the procedure that had previously been canceled within 48 hours.
“Víctor also has a first instance ruling from a judge, on the 17th of the Cali circuit, ordering Coomeva, the health provider company, exactly the same as that of Medellín to Incodol,” his lawyer tells EL PAÍS, Luis Giraldo.
The order of the Cali court indicates that “the constitutional protection of the right to die with dignity” of Escobar must be granted; that Coomeva must carry out a new medical committee to evaluate the man’s case and within 15 days and if he persists in his decision, carry out the procedure.
The committee, carried out by the Imbanaco clinic in Cali, assured that Escobar did not accredit the conditions of a terminal illness “nor the existence of a medical condition incompatible with human dignity capable of producing intense suffering.” And the health promoting entity challenged the first instance ruling.
Now, Víctor’s fight to access euthanasia, became entangled between the legal bureaucracy, which seems to be the constant in the cases in Colombia: that of Yolanda Chaparro, diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, who died last June after leading a battle legal against the health system; or that of Ovidio Gonzáles Correa, the first person to access legal euthanasia in Colombia, in 2015 and who, with everything planned, 15 minutes before the agreed time for goodbye, the clinic stopped the procedure.
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“I celebrate the decision of the Medellín judge’s ruling on Mrs. Martha. I hope that your EPS (Entidad Promotora de Salud) respect this ruling and will not delay the process of a dignified death any longer. I also wish that they do not continue to delay the processes for these patients like me, ”Escobar said in a video. He is now waiting for the Superior Court of Cali to make a decision.
Víctor Escobar worked as a truck driver and 25 years ago he suffered an accident. A co-worker backed up with a vehicle and seized Escobar’s, fracturing his spine and destroying his intestines; later he suffered a stroke and then another. “They have been about 15 years in which his health has deteriorated terribly,” explains the lawyer.
Since then, his wife, Diana Francelly Nieto, has been the one who has to feed him, help him move and bathe him, while the family economy has become increasingly precarious. “My health situation is very complicated and I can’t work anymore, they mobilize me in a wheelchair. My wife helps me do everything since I can’t do my things. My wife needs to be given the opportunity to work at home with sewing as it is her job, “he wrote through his account @ eutanasia16 on Twitter.
For this reason, for a little over two years he asked to be authorized for euthanasia. However, at that time in Colombia, the procedure was only authorized for terminally ill patients.
In July 2021, however, the Constitutional Court shook the dash of dignified death in Colombia. It also extended the right to die with dignity to non-terminal people “who because of them have” intense physical or mental suffering due to bodily injury or serious and incurable diseases. ” And Víctor like Martha Sepúlveda saw in that ruling the opportunity to exercise their right to die with dignity.
“I made the decision to be euthanized 2 years and two months ago. For me it is to anticipate what is coming and give me a break, “Escobar told EL PAÍS, with enormous difficulty breathing and speaking. “My moral is that now I can do it because there are multiple pains and there is a lot of suffering,” said the man who has been connected to oxygen for 4 years.
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