Two more doctors have stopped working shifts at a Winnipeg hospital's critical care unit to avoid treating an 84-year-old man on life support. A third doctor said surgery needed to keep the patient alive was like "torture."
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said Tuesday it's in negotiations with doctors at Grace Hospital to have one physician treat Samuel Golubchuk, who has been on life support since last fall.
Golubchuk's doctors have recommended that he be removed from life support, but his family has fought that in court. They are Orthodox Jews, and their beliefs strictly forbid the hastening of a death.
Heidi Graham of the WRHA said that Golubchuk's doctor would be assisted by two other physicians.
"This will allow the other doctors at the Grace ICU to continue their rotations as scheduled," Graham told CTV Winnipeg.
However, the hospital's doctors have yet to agree to this plan.
On Monday, doctors Bojan Paunovic and David Easton became the second and third doctors to stop accepting shifts at Grace Hospital's critical care unit.
Dr. Anand Kumar had told Golubchuk's family it would be best to take him off life support because he has minimal brain function and his chances of recovery are slim.
Earlier this month, Kumar resigned from his rotations at the hospital, saying he could no longer, in good conscience, continue to keep Golubchuck alive.
In his resignation letter, Kumar detailed how doctors had to "surgically hack away at Golubchuck's infected flesh" because of ulcers on his skin. He likened the treatment to torture.
However, Golubchuck's family went to court and got an injunction to keep him on life support. The case is due in court again this September.
Neil Kravetsky, the family's lawyer, said his clients are obliged to fight for Golubchuk's life.
"It would be against their religious convictions not to fight for life and there is life and they are fighting," Kravetsky told CTV Winnipeg.
The guidelines of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) allow doctors to refuse treatment to patients if they provide "reasonable notice" or arrange to have another physician provide treatment, Dr. Jeff Blackmer, medical ethics director of the CMA, said in an interview on CTV Newsnet.
However, provincial health bodies need to establish clear guidelines for doctors that outline when, and under what circumstances, they can refuse to treat a patient.
"Right now there's probably a bit of a grey area in terms of guidelines that are available," Blackmer said.
