Parents of Vancouver woman denied medically-assisted death at St. Paul's Hospital speak out

Sam O’Neill planned to spend her 34th birthday running the 2022 Vancouver Marathon. Instead, she was in a bed at St. Paul’s Hospital, having just been diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer.

Her parents, Jim and Gaye O’Neill, flew out from Ontario to be with their daughter for her final birthday. “She was optimistic there would be some treatment, it would be chemo and radiation,” said Jim.

But by the time it was detected, the cancer had already spread to Sam’s lymph nodes and pelvic bone. By early 2023, it was clear treatment would not save the young woman her parents say was fiercely independent.

“She wasn’t going to have anyone look after her, she was going to do it her way, all the way,” said Jim.

For Sam, that included choosing how and when she was going to die. In February, she was approved for Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID.

“I mean I didn’t want her to go, obviously. If there was a chance, I would have discouraged her. But there was no choice,” said Sam’s mother Gaye. “She was in so much pain.”

After entering palliative care at St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver in March, Sam learned she couldn’t have a medically-assisted death there, because the hospital falls under the umbrella of Providence Health Care, which is a Catholic organization that opposes MAID.

While doctors at St. Paul’s could prepare Sam for assisted death, they could not administer it, which shocked her parents.

“It’s not like the hospital is not fully vested into the process,” said Jim. “It’s just this idiotic policy that they won’t do it at the hospital, which is really hard on the patient and it’s really hard on the family.”

In the final hours of her life, as her family was trying to say goodbye, Sam had to be sedated in order to be transferred from St. Paul’s to a nearby hospice for MAID.

“Where she could have been just laying in her bed comfortably so we could go in and talk to her and tell her how we felt about her, it felt more like she was running for a bus,” said Gaye. “People were just trying to get her ready and there was all this commotion and it was confusing. It was hell, quite frankly. It was a horrible few hours.”

Sam did not regain consciousness before her MAID procedure at the hospice. She died on April 4th, just weeks shy of her 35th birthday.

“Her last words to me were ‘Mom, it is what it is.’ And well, it is what it is. And she’s gone,” said Gaye. “Would I like her back? Yes. I would like this whole past year gone.”

As they mourn their daughter, Sam’s parents are speaking out about the religious exemption for MAID at publicly-funded Providence Health Care hospitals that they think the provincial government should eliminate.

“We don’t elect the Catholic Church to govern the province and healthcare, we have our public officials, it’s a democracy,” said Jim. “We have gone through the process to get MAID approved as an acceptable way of dealing with a horrendous situation, and it’s approved and it’s funded. And for the Catholic Church or any religious or other organization to step in to interfere with that process, it makes no sense.”

“I think the church should just butt out,” added Gaye, who along with her husband is now advocating on behalf of families like hers, in memory of their daughter. “Sam would like change, I’m sure of it.”