Ammy More fighting for her life in an induced coma in Brisbane hospital

The shattered father of a homeless Queensland mum has spoken about the sad struggles which drove her to live on the streets before she was critically injured at a campsite. VIDEO

When Ammy More’s landlord raised the rent on their Burnett Heads home to more than $400 per week, beyond what she and her partner could afford, she took it as a mixed blessing.

Her dad Glenn, who has asked the community to pray for his daughter as she is treated for critical burns in Brisbane, told this publication on Wednesday that after experiencing a mental health crisis around five years ago, Ammy gave up custody of her children.

According to Glenn, Ammy believed it was best for them and that regaining care would be simple once she had recovered.

Glenn More said he doesn't know why Ammy More didn't seek help from family when she went through her mental episode, but said she has always been a strongly independent woman.

That didn’t happen and, in the years, since, all her children apart from her eldest, stopped communicating with her.

“The problem was once the kids cut off all communication – there was no letters, no birthday cards, no phone calls – once that happens you might as well just (give up) out because kids is what you live for,” he said.

“Ammy would give her life for her kids.”

Her depression exacerbated by the loss of contact with her children, Ammy and her partner, Anthony, looked for a new place to live after being told that their new landlord would be raising the rent by more than $100 per week, beyond what they could afford while living only on Centrelink payments.

Glenn said Ammy suffered from mental health complications which were exacerbated by losing access to her children around five years ago.

Having languished on the social housing register for over three years, with no sign of reaching the head of the queue, Ammy and Anthony were similarly unable to make any headway on the private rental market.

Eventually, the couple decided they would sell everything that could not be packed into a car, bought a tent and camping equipment and went travelling.

Ammy was buoyed by the decision to hit the open road, a welcome taste of freedom after living within the constraints of regulations, a formidable housing market and her own deteriorating mental health.

“She was happy – she used to contact us all the time, I used to contact her to make sure she was doing all right,” Glenn said.

“She wanted her independence out there, she was going to places she’d never seen.

“As to what was going to happen down the track, who knows? Maybe they were hoping, like thousands of others, that somewhere down the line the prices of rent would start dropping.”

Glenn said the couple travelled “down south somewhere” and then further north before camping in local areas including Gayndah and Gin Gin and returning to Bundaberg around the middle of August.

After being unable to find housing, Ammy was happy to hit the road camping around the region with her partner, Anthony.

Ammy and Anthony set up camp in a thin stretch of bushland on the south bank of the Burnett River in Kalkie, around five minute’s drive north of the Bundaberg Rum Distillery.

MUM PLACED IN INDUCED COMA AFTER FIRE

Around two weeks later, on Thursday, August 31, Ammy’s 19-year-old daughter, Paige, went to visit her at the campsite with a family friend.

On arriving sometime after 10am, they found a row of police cars parked on McGill Road next to the campsite, with a broad perimeter around the campsite cordoned off with police tape.

Scorched grass surrounded the site where Ammy’s tent formerly stood, now reduced to a pile of ashes along with all the couple’s worldly possessions apart from their car that was parked nearby.

Police investigate the tent and grassfire at a campsite used by homeless people in Bundaberg.

After being told by police the two occupants of the tent were taken to Bundaberg Hospital, Paige sent a photo of the scene to Glenn to confirm the car was Ammy’s before heading into the hospital.

“Paige only lasted a couple of seconds in there, that’s how bad her Mum was,” Glenn said.

In severe pain and with burns to 54 per cent of her body, Ammy was placed into an induced coma and arranged a flight to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital where she remains in the Intensive Care Unit.

The site of the fire is frequently used as a campsite by homeless people in Bundaberg.

After some initial preparatory operations, surgeons have told Glenn his daughter will need around four skin graft operations over the coming four weeks, with Glenn and Paige planning to travel down to Brisbane on the coming weekend.

They will be unable to speak to Ammy, since she will remain in the induced coma until the operations have been completed to avoid her body “closing down” from the pain, Glenn said.

Glenn More and Ammy's eldest daughter Paige will be travelling down to Brisbane on Saturday, August 9 to see Ammy.

Police are treating the fire as a “self harm” incident.

According to Glenn, Ammy’s partner told him the pair had a fight outside and she went inside the tent, threatening to do self-harm.

Glenn isn’t convinced that Ammy lit the fire deliberately, holding open the possibility that she accidentally knocked over a stove.

“We don’t know whether she was threatening to do self harm and lost it, or kicked it over and deliberately started the fire and accidentally got caught in it,” he said.

“I couldn’t see my daughter, even though she’s desperate, (she) could never do that.”

Since the incident was reported, Glenn has received many offers for assistance from people ranging from Ammy’s school friends to complete strangers which he feels he can’t accept until he knows more about her likely fate.

“They had a bit of furniture and a fridge and things like that, it’s all gone,” Glenn said.

“But I can’t accept any help really until I know what goes on with Ammy herself.

“I don’t like taking help. Nobody in our family is wealthy, we’re an ordinary, everyday struggling family.”

While a stoic man and sustained by his faith, Glenn has shed some tears, worried Ammy will not survive.

“I’ve shed a few tears, I can tell you,” he said.

“I try not to show too much emotion in front of other people, I shed my tears in private if I can.

“Because that’s just between me and God and my daughter.”

Donations to Ammy’s fundraiser can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/ammys-recovery-fund

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