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Fraser Health said it referred the case to the public trustee office because of concerns over how “the funds of an incapable adult are being managed.”

Hammond, also a former nurse, just like her mom, told me the review by The Public Guardian and Trustee has been completed and “they are not seeking authority to manage her affairs.”

The file is indeed closed.

The family still refuses to pay Maplewood House in Abbotsford, which is operated by a non-profit society and subsidized by Fraser Health.

Says Hammond:

“We feel that if Maplewood House did not feel able to discontinue feeding my mother, we should have been able to bring her home and, under the care and supervision of her GP, she would have been allowed to die, compassionately and appropriately medicated and sedated. This did not happen; in fact, the Abbotsford Police were to be called if we tried to remove my mom from the facility.

So, here she is, 5 years after we tried to have her wishes honoured. Skin and bone, increasingly spastic, lots of rotten teeth; kept alive against her wishes, her suffering prolonged by others. What a horrible and painful tragedy this is.”

When I asked Hammond if I could publish the latest photo of her mother, she said:

“Yes, you can use that tragic picture. Maybe it will help people to question the notion of sustaining life… even if there is no quality of life, of any kind, remaining. In fact, it is often just the prolonging of suffering.”

Tasleem Juma, spokeswoman for Fraser Health, said this when I asked for a comment: