Victorian woman trying to enter SA to visit dying mother ‘traumatised’ by experience with SA Health
A Victorian woman trying to get into SA to see her dying mother has been left “traumatised” by her experience with SA Health after being left with no answer for a week.
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A Melbourne woman is “traumatised” by her experience with SA Health after it took more than a week to be granted permission to enter the state to visit her dying mother, only after The Advertiser contacted SA Health to ask about her situation.
It comes a day after 11 relatives of Port Adelaide were given permission to travel from Victoria to SA to watch the AFL finals.
Victoria Hannan, 39, applied for an exemption to enter the state a week ago, last Thursday, when she found out her mother, Cyndy, who has terminal cancer, had been admitted to hospital in a deteriorating condition.
She sought approval to enter the state to see her mother, 71, but only received an exemption on Thursday, hours after The Advertiser contacted SA Health about her situation.
Ms Hannan said the fact families of AFL players were granted exemptions before her was a real “kick in the guts”.
“It was especially galling and really upsetting to find out AFL families were granted an exemption before I was.”
She said she had been crying all week from the uncertainty of her situation.
“I actually feel genuinely traumatised by this whole experience, my poor mum and dad,” Ms Hannan said.
“It’s probably been one of the most distressing weeks of my life, just feeling so powerless.”
Her father, Mike, 79, has Parkinson’s disease and is at risk of falling or choking while alone, without the care of his wife, Cyndy.
Ms Hannan will fly to SA on the earliest flight she could get, at lunchtime on Friday.
She will be transferred directly to hotel quarantine, and granted permission to visit her mother in hospital if she returns a negative COVID test.
The quarantine fee will cost Ms Hannan $3000.
“I’m just very lucky that I’m able to pay that money,” she said.
Tom Rice, from Ballarat, applied for an exemption for himself, and his parents, Kerry, 63, and Jeff, 65, to cross the border to Murray Bridge to attend his grandmother’s funeral on September 14.
SA Health granted the exemption eight days later, on September 22 – the day of the funeral – denying the family a chance to say goodbye to their relative.
Mr Rice, a Port Adelaide supporter, said it was enraging to hear AFL families could come to a football match but his father could not attend his mother’s funeral.
“It sort of feels inhumane,” Mr Rice said.
“You shouldn’t be going to a football match if my dad can’t go to his mum’s funeral.”
An SA Health spokesperson said: “Travel exemptions are considered on a case-by-case basis and take account of local epidemiology including evidence of community transmission.”