83-year-old Christian woman killed ‘against her will’ by Canadian government—she was praying as they took her life: report

Speaking with the Daily Mail, Brigitte Kranendonk said she sat down with her grandmother, Brigitte Stegemann, two days before the procedure took place to make sure she understood what was going to happen.

“I used very frank terms. I said: ‘Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?’” Kranendonk said her grandmother was in disbelief and cried for 45 minutes upon hearing this. “I’ve made a mistake,” Kranendonk recalled her grandmother saying. “She was bawling. Inconsolable.”

Kranendonk said that in a cognitive test administered to Stegemann, which is designed to determine whether a person seeking MAID is of sound mind to consent, Stegemann “got every question wrong, believing that her two living siblings were dead.

48 hours after Kranendonk spoke with her grandmother, Stegemann was dead. She reportedly died with her hands clasped in prayer and covered in her own blood after the first attempt at connecting the IV, which was allegedly administered by a nurse not wearing gloves, was botched. Stegemann’s death took place on July 10 at The Pearl care home in Cannifton.

Kranendonk alleges that MAID practitioners had taken advantage of her vulnerable grandmother. “She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity.” She added, “No one had ever done MAiD at this residential home before: this was their very first MAiD procedure. So I don’t know if they just dropped the ball, because they didn’t know what they were doing.” The care home has maintained that Stegemann had legally consented.

Speaking on that morning, Kranendonk said, “There was a phenomenal amount of blood. She said a nurse had failed to find the correct vein in her grandmother’s right arm for an IV, and switched to her left arm after having “poked her about three or four times with the needle.”

“It is all over my Oma's arm, it is all over her nightie, soaking through her pillow, all over the sheets, there is so much blood. And throughout all this time, mind you, the nurse is not wearing gloves.”

Kranendonk spoke of a February incident in which her grandmother was fitted with a medical port. Stegemann repeatedly ripped it off, yelling, “I don’t want the death shot!”

Kranendonk had been Stegemann’s caregiver for 12 years and her medical power of attorney for six years. A year and a half before Stegemann’s death, her family made the decision to place her in The Pearl as her cognitive and physical health began to decline. In February of 2026, she was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer. Doctors, however, were uncertain about the amount of time she had left to years, with estimates ranging as high as two years.

Kranendonk spoke with her grandmother about all options for the final stages of her life after the diagnosis, including MAID, and remembered her grandmother saying, “No, I don't want that.” Kranendonk said her grandmother’s religiosity was a large factor in why she didn’t want it.

She was told on July 3 that the care home was booking a MAiD assessment for her grandmother. Kranendonk had been on a 10-day trip, and earlier on the trip, no one had said anything about a dramatic decline in her grandmother’s health.

“I truly believe that one nurse really saw us as an obstacle,” Kranendonk said. “We were getting in the way of her doing MAID on my grandmother. I think she really, truly believes that MAID is the best for people, and shame on me for trying to stop that.”

Kranendonk said she was present for her grandmother’s second MAID assessment. She said the doctor spoke in “really loose terms, never using the words death or dying.”

“She explains MAID to my grandmother by saying: ‘We’re going to give you medicine, you’re going to feel at peace. And I just want you to know that you won’t have a bowel movement.’ She’s saying it in these strange terms, that aren’t literal.” She added, “My Oma’s just kind of nodding. Her first language is not English, she is 83-years old and severely hearing-impaired.”

Kranendonk said she has yet to see the MAID paperwork that a nurse claimed her grandmother signed. Stegemann got questions wrong on her assessment and was confused in the days leading up to her death. Kranendonk said that she felt cornered and rushed in the days leading up to her grandmother’s death. She said that when the doctor arrived to administer the life-ending medication and asked Stegemann if that was ok, Stegemann did not respond. The doctor proceeded.