Psych Ward Exit – Death Hours Later

Hospital corridor with doors and medical cart — Photo: anju901 / Shutterstock

Two daughters say their mom died by assisted death only hours after leaving a psych ward, and they want the rules changed now.

Story Snapshot

The daughters say their mom was released from psychiatric care the same day she died by assisted death.
Police reviewed records and said clinicians found her capable and eligible under Canada’s law.
The family tried for 48 hours to stop the process but failed.
Key assessment records have not been released to the family, fueling a push for reform.

What the family says happened, and when

Parliamentary testimony records the daughters stating their mother, Donna Duncan, survived a suicide attempt, was held involuntarily in a psychiatric unit, and died by medical assistance in dying within roughly four hours of her release. The same record places the two formal eligibility assessments on October 24 and October 26, 2021, days after the reported suicide attempt and psychiatric admission. This timeline is the heart of the family’s alarm: a recent crisis, then a green light, then a death the same day.

CTV News covered the case soon after, reporting the suicide attempt, the involuntary admission, and the family’s request for a police investigation into the death. That article underscored the collision of two claims: urgent mental health needs versus a rapid assisted-death process. Later accounts from the daughters detail frantic calls to police and a court effort under the Mental Health Act, all in a narrow window they say left no margin for careful review or family input.

What officials and clinicians concluded

Police in British Columbia reviewed hospital and assisted-death materials and said medical opinions, including from a family doctor, described Donna as of clear mind and capable of making her own decision. Two assessors found her eligible, with weight loss and frailty cited as grounds that made her natural death “reasonably foreseeable,” which fits the track for cases where death is expected. This account backs the position that clinicians followed the law as written, even if the outcome looks harsh to many.

The path to that decision was not straight. One doctor reportedly declined to support assisted death on October 14, 2021, citing concern that she had not followed treatment recommendations and that her decline tracked with mental health deterioration. Donna then pursued assessments from other practitioners and was approved after two independent reviews, one by a doctor and one by a nurse practitioner, later that month. That fork in the road fuels the family’s claim that the system rewards “doctor shopping.”

The missing records, the lingering questions

Alicia Duncan says police treated the death as unusual enough to investigate but closed the case when the health authority did not release key assessment records. Without those documents, the family cannot test whether assessors weighed the recent suicide attempt, the involuntary hold, and the disputed cause of malnutrition with enough care. The absence of the primary file keeps this case in the fog, and it keeps the daughters fighting for disclosure and changes to law and policy.

Policy materials show Canada’s own experts call capacity and irremediability the hardest parts of assisted death when mental distress and physical decline overlap. Federal reporting urges strong safeguards, clear proof of options offered, and caution when psychiatric factors may drive suffering. Those warnings fit the fault lines here: Was the malnutrition reversible with proper psychiatric care, or was decline truly beyond repair? The public record leaves that core medical question open.

What reform could look like now

Common-sense steps line up with conservative values of prudence, family, and accountability. First, require automatic cooling-off periods after a psychiatric hold or suicide attempt before any assisted-death approval can be acted on. Second, mandate full release of assessment packets to next of kin after death, with names redacted if needed, so families can see what was weighed. Third, bar assessors who approve a case from also performing the procedure. Fourth, flag high-risk cases for external review before scheduling.

Legislators can also demand real oversight, not just after-the-fact statistics. An independent provincial reviewer should audit cases involving recent psychiatric crises, verify that patients were offered intensive treatment, and confirm that families were notified when law allows. That is not a ban; it is guardrails. The public does not accept a system where a person can try to end their life, exit a locked ward, and end it legally a few hours later without a second look. That should not be controversial.

Where this leaves the debate

The daughters’ timeline is specific and public. The police conclusion on capacity is also clear. Both can be true, and that is the problem: the law may allow outcomes many citizens see as preventable. Until the full assessment record is released, arguments will talk past each other. The fix is not spin or silence. The fix is daylight, strict process, and respect for families who carry the cost when the system moves too fast.