SA woman’s plea for compassion on border exemptions to see terminally ill mother
An SA woman is pleading for transparency and compassion on our borders after her bids to come home to her dying mum in Adelaide were knocked back without explanation.
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Domenique Szantyr is separated from her terminally ill mum in Adelaide by border restrictions and they don’t know how much time they have left.
The 35-year-old South Australian is issuing a plea for more transparency and compassion from authorities on border exemptions after her bid to get home to see her mum, Mardi, was knocked back twice.
Ms Szantyr lives in Melbourne with her husband and young son, Lachlan.
Her 65-year-old mother has Stage 4 breast cancer, which has now spread to her lungs, bones and brain.
She believes she is eligible for a travel exemption on compassionate grounds, which is stated as a valid reason on the website, including for travellers from Victoria.
But there was no explanation from SA Health when her application was rejected, other than she didn’t meet the criteria.
“For those of us that have family that are so unwell, and we can’t stop thinking about our family all the time, it is really heartbreaking to just not be able to go,” Ms Szantyr said. “Watching cancer is horrible, watching it from afar is a really horrible, horrible thing.”
The young mum said she respected the need for restrictions to protect community health, but could not understand why she was refused when her family was happy to hotel quarantine and take all other necessary precautions.
“I’ve had a really good look through the direction and there’s nothing that explicitly says no Victorians on compassionate grounds,” she said.
“If they want to come back and say, ‘Well, this is where it’s printed saying you can’t’, then I can accept that.
“I don‘t know when my mum is going to die but it will happen at some point and I want to be there. I‘m sure there are so many other people in this situation.”
She said she would not give up on her application. “I can’t comfortably sit here and think I didn’t try everything I could to be there.”
SA Health would not comment on individual cases but said in a statement: “Travel exemptions are considered on a case-by-case basis and take account of local epidemiology including evidence of community transmission.”