Assisted Suicide: Jaime Osorio Márquez, 'The Cancer Didn't Kill Him'

Jaime Osorio Márquez has died.

The creator of HBO’s “A Thousand Fangs” chose to die by assisted suicide on Thursday, December 23, 2021.

The show was HBO’s first Colombian series, and the director/creator of ‘Fangs’ died in Colombia.

Assisted suicide is defined as, “the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, effected by the taking of lethal drugs provided by a doctor for this purpose.”

Assisted suicide is legal in Colombia.

Jaime had been battling an aggressive form of kidney cancer since 2009.

He was first diagnosed with the deadly disease in 2009, but was able to beat it. Sadly, it came back in 2012.

That year the cancer returned and metastasized, which means it spread to other sites of the body.

According to his producing partner Federico Duran of Rhayuela Films, Jaime’s increasing pain and growing intolerance of pain medications compelled him to end his life before his health deteriorated further and he became a burden to his family.

“My soul brother left this earthly plane last Thursday,” Duran said. “He was my great friend, that’s why all the memories of the nearly 15 years of working with him I reserve for myself, at least while I process the pain of his departure. Everyone has asked me what happened to him when he seemed so well, that they had seen him very active recently and that he was at such an important moment in his career.”

Jaime wanted the world to know it was NOT cancer that took his life.

“He wanted the whole world to know: Jaime was not killed by cancer. That disease that struck him for the first time in 2009, just before we started production on his debut feature, ‘The Squad,’ (‘El Paramo’) and that despite all the treatments, ruthlessly re-announced itself in the form of a metastasis over the weekend when they gave him the award for best director at the Sitges festival,” he continued.

“No, Jaime was not killed by the disease. He survived it, defeated it and dominated it. He managed to write and stage a play, direct his second film, ‘The Sacrifice’ (‘7 Cabezas’) and the series ‘A Thousand Fangs,’ a titanic effort that turned out to be one of the most outstanding productions in Latin America; and then, before the disease took over his life again, he pushed ahead of it,” said the ‘Fangs’ show runner.

“Somehow, he plotted his own ending, as if he were the writer of his own script. In his moment of greatest glory, he made the decision and put the words ‘The End’ to his own life. Fly high, my brother,” he concluded.

The Colombian Ministry of Culture wrote on Twitter, “We regret the death of Colombian director Jaime Osorio, known for great productions such as ‘The Squad,’ ‘The Sacrifice’ and the series ‘A Thousand Fangs.’ We send a message of condolences to his family and friends,”

Rest in peace.