@$ID/[No paragraph style]:My name is Lynda Royce and on May 14, 1971, I gave birth to Paul Garcia Royce, who was born profoundly brain damaged as the umbilical cord strangled him as he came down the birth canal. Fetal monitors were unavailable in those days so doctors did not perform a Cesarean Section.

Throughout his life, Paul had the mental capabilities of a three-week-old baby and, though he was blessed with gray eyes fringed with long black lashes (which matched his silky black hair), he did not recognize any of his family, including his brother, Craig, who was very loving to, and protective of, him.

He also suffered from a severe seizure disorder which multiple medications did not alleviate. Paul walked at nine months, squealing with delight at this newfound experience!

Unfortunately, the “drop seizures” caused him much distress as he fell approximately 20 to 30 times a day. Even with a helmet on his head, by the time he was four years old, he had: knocked out two teeth, shoved one tooth up into his gums when he ran into an armchair (I then added a mouth guard), broke his thumb (which the doctor said could not be set as it may cause further damage from ultimately being broken again), cut his eye on the end of my hope chest (which was later covered with a blanket), and suffered other numerous mishaps.

One doctor in the ER told me: “He may just have a brain tumor which could be removed and he would be okay.”

If only it had been that simple! When he was 14 years old, he underwent a spinal fusion at Children’s Hospital in Boston, MA. As the doctor said, without this surgery, his lungs would SLOWLY be crushed by his ribcage. As he laid laughing on the gurney (seizures can cause this), I could not explain (as you would to a normal teenager) what he would experience (although how do you tell him he would wake up in excruciating pain which he would not understand ... but would surely feel).

Morphine was given to him in the Intensive Care Unit after the nine-hour surgery. When Paul was 29 and bleeding internally, his doctor told me I could “choose to not treat him” and I did.

Paul never had a happy day in his short lifetime, and I (and his devoted brother) consistently watched him suffer as his body twitched uncontrollably from continuous seizure activity. After watching him suffer endlessly for so many years, I would have allowed doctors (had it been LEGAL) to “overmedicate” him, allowing his painful journey to come peacefully to an end.

At his funeral, Craig ended his testimonial to his brother saying, “Much like the song of a bird, Paul now travels with the wind.” And that is why I believe in the Death with Dignity bill.

Lynda Garcia Royce

Montpelier