Photo credit: the Guardian
An Ontario man, Ted Sewerynek, with cancer, has been pushed to apply for medically assisted death.
CHCH-TV reports that the man’s family said they’d not been able to pay the $40,000 a month required for the man’s medication. According to the family, a drug that could prolong the man’s life could not be found in the province.
Meanwhile, time is running out.
Sewerynek said, “Well, I guess I am at the last stages of my life.”.
The 70-year-old got home from a trip last year and wasn’t feeling like himself. It turned out k=he had something called cholangiocarcinoma a cancer that exists between the gallbladder and the liver in a bile duct.
Although he was given one year to live, his son Matthew said there was hope from doctors. The family was told there was a drug that could improve the man’s quality of life and prolong it.
But the drug costs $40,000 every month for the rest of his life.
Pemigatinib, sold under the brand name Premature, is an anti-cancer medication used to treat bile duct cancer. It’s available in Canada. However, the cost is not covered in Ontario.
