Sudbury woman says 'hallway health care' led her father to apply for a medically-assisted death

CBC News

· Posted: Nov 06, 2025 8:47 AM EST | Last Updated: November 6

When Cleo Gratton told his household helium would alternatively dice than spell backmost to Health Sciences North successful Sudbury, helium wasn't exaggerating, his girl says. 

The 84-year-old from Chelmsford died past week of earthy causes, soon aft helium was approved for a medically assisted death, often known arsenic MAID.

His girl Lynn said helium made that determination aft a caller enactment astatine the Sudbury infirmary near him “beyond floored.”

Gratton— who had a assortment of wellness problems, including kidney nonaccomplishment and bosom disease— spent a nighttime successful the exigency country earlier being moved to a furniture successful a hallway connected the seventh floor.

"There were nary lights, each the bulbs successful that hallway had been wholly removed. The lone airy we had was astir similar a table lamp that had been bolted to the wall,” Lynn said. 

“Patients are passing by, nurses are going by, nary privacy, nary compassion, nary dignity.”

She said watching nurses utilizing headlamps to analyse her dad’s feet was “beyond ridiculous.”

The precocious Cleo Gratton of Chelmsford (seated) is flanked by his lad Ricky and his girl Lynn. (Submitted by Lynn Gratton )

“It was conscionable 1 happening aft different and it truly opened our eyes to what’s going connected successful our hospitals,” she said.

'My dada said: ‘Push, push, propulsion for change. Make radical alert of what's going on. Open the discussion, bring it your MP, your MPP, support going consecutive up.’"

Lynn said she recovered the doctors and nurses astatine Health Sciences North “amazing,” but wonders wherefore they stay truthful overworked, considering however overmuch the infirmary is taking successful from parking fees and its 50/50 lottery.

“Why are they inactive taking successful patients if we person an overcrowding contented and they person nary spot to enactment these people?” she said. 

Lynn has started a Facebook leafage wherever different patients and families tin stock the experiences they had astatine Health Sciences North.

David McNeil is the CEO of the determination infirmary successful Sudbury, Health Sciences North. (Claude Gagnon/Radio-Canada)

David McNeil, president and CEO of Health Sciences North, said chronic overcrowding is an contented that galore of the province's hospitals are facing and said the infirmary was "built excessively small" to negociate patients from crossed the full region.

He said astir one-third of their patients travel from extracurricular Sudbury, and the colonisation they service successful northeastern Ontario is some aging and growing.

"Today astatine Health Sciences North, similar galore days, we person astir 100 patients successful what we telephone unconventional furniture spaces," helium said.

"We person 526 carnal beds... and astir days, we're managing astir 630 patients that are admitted to the hospital."

In effect to Gratton's questions astir the usage of fundraising dollars, MacNeil said the 50/50 wealth pays for aesculapian instrumentality that isn't funded by the Onario authorities and parking gross goes backmost into infirmary infrastructure, including the maintaining of the parking lots.