A Canadian woman who sought assisted suicide because she couldn’t get treatment for a debilitating medical condition may be treated in the United States thanks to Glenn Beck.
Jolene’s Routine
Saskatchewan resident Jolene Van Alstine, 45, has suffered for eight years with normocalcemic primary hyperparathryroidism, an endocrine disease that causes nausea, vomiting, and the leaching of calcium from bones to the blood. That, in turn, can lead to excruciating bone pain, weakened bones, and fractures.
,“I haven’t left the house in eight years except to go to the doctor for blood work or to be admitted into the hospital,” she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Wednesday.
Last year, she spent six months in the hospital, she told the Toronto Sun. She is currently hospitalized in Regina, Saskatchewan, for “bowel issues,” according to the paper.
Van Alstine’s life is anything but pleasant.
“My friends have stopped visiting me. I’m isolated. I’ve been alone lying on the couch for eight years, sick and curled up in a ball, pushing for the day to end,” she said in late November.
“I go to bed at six at night,” she claimed, “because I can’t stand to be awake anymore.”
Van Alstine has undergone three surgeries but still needs a specialized procedure to resolve her condition completely. Unfortunately, according to the CBC:
Currently there is no Saskatchewan surgeon able to perform the operation.
Van Alstine said she must be referred out of province, but she can’t obtain a referral without first being seen by an endocrinologist — and none of them are accepting new patients.
Hopeless in Regina
Having given up all hope, Van Alstine applied for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), Canada’s name for physician-assisted suicide. Parliament legalized the practice for patients with terminal illnesses in 2016 and has since continually expanded its reach. Now, even someone like Van Alstine, who could be cured if only Canada’s socialist healthcare system weren’t so overwhelmed and bureaucratic, can be helped to an early grave.
“I understand how long and how much she’s suffered and it’s horrific, the physical suffering, but it’s also the mental anguish,” Van Alstine’s partner, Miles Sundeen, said last month. “No hope — no hope for the future, no hope for any relief. I don’t want her to do it, but I understand where she’s at.”
On November 25, Van Alstine spoke to the Saskatchewan legislature in hopes of getting some help. The next day, she met with provincial Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill. In a statement to the CBC, the Ministry of Health confirmed the meeting had occurred but declined to comment on its specifics, merely expressing the ministry’s “sincere sympathy for all patients who are suffering with a difficult health diagnosis.”
Beck’s X
After Van Alstine’s story went viral on social media, conservative commentator Glenn Beck stepped up to help. On Tuesday morning, he posted on X that he would personally pay for Van Alstine to travel to the United States if any American surgeon expressed a willingness to treat her.
“THIS is the reality of ‘compassionate’ progressive healthcare,” he wrote. “Canada must END this insanity and Americans can NEVER let it spread here.”
Fewer than four hours later, he posted that he had “surgeons … standing by to help” Van Alstine and requested her contact information.
By 3:30 p.m., he could report that his staff was “in contact with” Van Alstine and Sundeen. Sundeen told the Sun Beck’s assistant was “very supportive and hard-working.”
Then everything came to a screeching halt. An Atlanta specialist who’d volunteered to help decided he wasn’t right for the job. On top of that, neither Van Alstine nor Sundeen has a passport.
Fortunately, the Atlanta doctor referred Van Alstine to a clinic near Tampa, Florida, that believes they can perform the surgery. Van Alstine told the Sun she had tried to get the same clinic to treat her before, but they refused to do so without a referral from an endocrinologist. She’s hoping they’ll change their minds this time around.
Meanwhile, Beck’s team contacted the State Department to inquire about expediting the couple’s passports. “All I can say for now is they are aware of the urgent life-saving need and we had a very positive call,” he wrote Thursday morning.
Mind’s Not MAiD Up
The publicity has done Van Alstine good in her native country too. Sundeen told the CBC Wednesday that, “a little over a week ago,” referrals were sent to three Canadian clinics, two in Ontario and one in Alberta.
It has also caused her to reconsider her MAiD application to some degree. In fact, she learned Wednesday that she had only secured one of the required two approvals from medical practitioners; she previously thought she had both. And, of course, Beck’s efforts have given her hope.
“If we could go to the U.S. to do the surgery,” she told the Sun, “I would be so happy. I would have my life back.” But, “if it doesn’t work out,” she’ll go through with MAiD, she said.
The Sun rightly pointed out that “it should not take someone with the clout of Glenn Beck to make sure any Canadian can get medical help.” As long as Canada clings to its failing socialist healthcare system, however, patients lacking a platform and political pull will continue to suffer and die needlessly — some of them at the hands of the very system that is supposed to save their lives.
