Paola Roldan: “The only thing I deserve is death with dignity”, the story of the woman who decriminalized euthanasia in Ecuador

Paola Roldan’s life took an unexpected turn in August 2020.

He fainted while doing yoga. Some time later, while pushing her baby stroller, she felt as if she was drowning.

At first, the tests turned up nothing. But, given the persistence of the discomfort, Paola decided to continue investigating what was happening to her.

Till then she was living a healthy life. I exercised every day and ate healthy things.

But none of this stopped her complex diagnosis: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS.

ALS is a progressive disease for which there is no cure.

It is considered one of the motor neuron diseases two out of every 100,000 people on the planetAccording to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

This occurs when the neurons of patients affected by the disease degenerate or die and are no longer able to send messages to the muscles.

In the short and medium term, it causes muscle weakening, involuntary contractions, and inability to move the arms, legs, and body.

Paola experienced it all.

Today at the age of 42, She is lying in bed, on a respirator. Only you have control over the muscles in your face.

Amidst her pain – and accompanied by her husband, Nicolás, and her young son, Oliver – she decided to start a public fight for the right to euthanasia in her home country, Ecuador.

Thus, he filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador The unconstitutionality of Article 144 of the Comprehensive Biological Criminal Code, Which imposes a prison sentence of 10 to 13 years for simple homicide, including acts of euthanasia.

In the midst of the legislative process, the Ecuadorian declared in November, “I have lived a full life and I know that the only thing I deserve is death with dignity.”

After several months of deliberations, this Wednesday, February 7, the court agreed with him and issued a ruling in his favor, in the process, turning Ecuador around. Ninth country in the world to decriminalize assisted dying in extreme circumstances,

Given this, her father Francisco Roldán said he was satisfied because Paola had achieved “a historical fact and legacy for Ecuadorian society”.

But he admitted “with a half-broken heart, because we know whatever outcome that could be, the family is working on that, and it’s our daughter’s death, that’s too strong.”

After being diagnosed, Paola Rondon tried everything. Scientific and alternative treatments, always with the hope that your body can cope with the disease.

However, over the months of August 2020, the symptoms became increasingly apparent.

Since then, he has been hospitalized several times, battled infections, and his body changed radically.

He has also seen how his life hangs by a thread, with periods of stagnation at times. And, among other things, ALS causes weakness of the muscles involved in swallowing, leading to greater risks when eating.

According to the newspaper El País, his home – an apartment located about 20 minutes from Quito – had to adapt to his new reality, with a hospital bed first being set up in his dining room.

On January 17, Paola told through her X (Twitter) account what she has to endure every day.

“Today it has been 162 days since I presented my claim in the court. For many people 162 days are nothing For me it’s been 3,888 hours of survival“, Said.

“Since August 8th, I have been to 6 doctors who have given up on me, dozens of episodes of congestion, 10 days between Christmas and the beginning of this year the crisis was so severe that they oiled me and I told my family Said goodbye. My body started rejecting intravenous feeding, so I’ve been on an IV for 17 days. I don’t know how long I have spent in this slow pain…”

In another post on the same social network, the woman revealed that the disease is taking a heavy toll on her and her family.

The above, noting the 3 nurses who take care of him “24/7”, “in these 3 years I have received more than 3,500 treatments” and several trips abroad “in search of help”.

“I have got everything, there is no therapy or medicine that we skimp on and I can assure you of that “Not a minute goes by without me feeling physical pain, leave alone emotional pain,” he said.

“They could feed me morphine constantly, so I don’t think, is this the life for you?”

The hardest part of his illness has probably been watching his son Oliver, who is almost 4, grow up.

On her social networks, Paola Roldan has said that she is doing “time capsule” Which includes gifts for her future birthdays, a box full of her memories, her first memories and the most important moments of her life, including the time she fell in love for the first time, when she left school and university. Enters.

“It’s been hard to think of a symbol specifically for each of these moments Because I don’t know what my son will like or who he will become., I didn’t want these gifts to be a directive of what I wanted for her, but rather that they provide her with greater freedom,” he hinted in a post by X.

The Ecuadorian has also said that, although she had always assumed that she would attend all of her son’s productions – including moments like his graduation – this is not what life had prepared for her.

Similarly, she has also spoken openly about her husband Nicholas, who has been with her for the last three years.

“None of this would have been possible without my husband’s dedication and flexibility,” she said in an Instagram post in November 2023.

According to her lawyers, she decided to demand access to active euthanasia Realizing that over time she will also lose the ability to communicate with her husband and sonWho supports him all the time.

His decision to expose himself on social networks and fight for a dignified death has taken a heavy toll on him.

He has said that, at some point, he even regretted bringing his and his family’s situation to light.

In his own words, he is for some people “The Brave and the Heroine” Whereas, for others, “Cowardly and villainous.”

“It’s as if a steamroller has turned me into a one-dimensional caricature,” he told X in November last year.

“A month and a half ago I was mother, Enana (sister), Mija (daughter), Amor or just Pao. Now, I’m a 42-year-old woman with ALS, fighting for euthanasia,” she continued.

Paola Roldan did not know whether she would survive when the court ruled regarding her claim.

In early February, when he learned that the decision would be known within days, he said: “I have survived and now I want to see if the blood of justice and humanity flows in the veins of this country. Or if we continue with regressive thinking that increases suffering.”

In a virtual press conference held after the court published its decision, Paola said: “I thank everyone because today Ecuador is a little more welcoming, freer and more respectable country.”

He also said that he will spend the next few days with his family and understand what the decision means. Because “getting information is different from dreaming about it.”

The court’s decision has come “Immediate Compliance”.

This means only one thing: that, from now on, Paola will finally be able to choose the day of her death.

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