(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of The John Henry Westen Show, Sister Deirdre “Dede” Byrne joins me to discuss the tragic story of her close friend Sister Philip Marie Burle, who allegedly became a victim of “stealth euthanasia” at a Catholic nursing home despite not being terminally ill.
I asked Sr. Dede – a Catholic nun, surgeon, and pro-life advocate – to explain what happened to Sr. Philip Marie. She noted that they had been good friends for 35 years and had done international missionary work together. A few years ago, Sr. Philip Marie developed an infection in her chest and, after recovering, was sent to Mount Carmel Senior Living in St. Charles, Missouri.
Fast forward to 2022, when Sr. Philip Marie is scheduled to have surgery, Sr. Dede and another close friend decide to fly out to be by her bedside.
When we arrived, she was basically in a coma for about two days. She was not irascible; she was breathing and everything else. She had a feeding tube in, which I didn’t know about. … So when we were there at her bedside, in comes a nurse, and she introduces herself to be the hospice nurse.
I said, ‘What’s going on with sister? There’s something wrong. Has she had a stroke?’ She said, ‘Oh no, no, no. We’re helping her transition.’ Then all of a sudden it was like electricity shooting through my body. That’s like the code word for ‘we’re killing her.’
The nun then explained that she ruffled feathers with the hospital about stopping the narcotic treatments and not “transitioning” Sr. Philip Marie, but they were very aggressive. Sr. Dede further emphasized the horrific environment of this hospital and recounted her conversation with Sr. Philip Marie when she finally woke up.
“And she finally woke up… her mouth was cranked; the room was a mess. It was really a horrific environment. Sister said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what they’re doing to me.’ So I said, ‘Well, you have to say no to narcotics,’” she recalled.
Sr. Dede underscored that another nun who didn’t know Sr. Philip Marie had the power of attorney, and Sr. Dede was unsuccessful in obtaining the power of attorney, making it more difficult for Sr. Philip Marie to get out of that hospital.
The nun stressed how Sr. Philip Marie had a chronic illness, crest syndrome, not a terminal illness, but was nevertheless deemed incompetent by two doctors despite her mind being very alert.
Extensive video footage taken for a forthcoming documentary shows that she was competent, and Sr. Dede posited that the doctors tested her competency after she was over-sedated. The nun then described how bad Sr. Philip Marie’s condition had been at the end of her life after she was forbidden from visiting her in the hospital.
“Her oxygen is off, and she’s not getting anything; she cannot drink by mouth because of her condition. I forgot to mention when I first arrived in January of 2022, her mouth was in terrible shape, it was cranked with debris,” she said.
Watch or listen to my full interview with Sister Deidre Byrne to hear the full heart-wrenching story of Sister Philip Marie Burle’s alleged mistreatment and death by “stealth euthanasia.”
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