Australian Anna Coffey reunited with dying father after Covid mercy dash

A heartfelt reunion between an Australian woman and her dying father has finally taken place after more than a week spent navigating Covid-19 red tape.

A heartfelt reunion between an Australian woman and her dying father has finally taken place after a mercy dash across the globe and more than a week spent navigating Covid-19 red tape.

Anna Coffey, 32, was finally able to visit her 80-year-old father John in St Vincent’s Hospital in east Melbourne on Thursday, after she rushed home from New York upon learning he had suffered a serious stroke a week ago.

“I got two hours to visit, it was very strict,” she said. “But it was absolutely worth it, a thousand times over.”

Anna Coffey with her father John at St Vincent Hospital on the Park in Melbourne. Picture: Supplied

Before she could venture out of her Melbourne hotel quarantine, Ms Coffey was required to return her third negative Covid-19 test since landing in Australia.

“I then had to be escorted from my room, to the elevator, then to a car and a police car also followed behind,” she said.

Ms Coffey was dressed in full PPE and unable to touch anyone, including her mother, who was present for the visit, but said she was grateful to spend the time with her family.

“Dad slept for most of it but toward the end we could speak a little bit,” she said.

Anna Coffey spent a week in Sydney hotel quarantine trying to get to Melbourne to see her father.

It was the moment she had waited for, having spent almost a week in Sydney hotel quarantine trying to get an exemption to travel to Melbourne, which was ultimately only granted after charity Angel Flight donated a charter plane for her to make the journey.

Anna Coffey left Bankstown Airport on Wednesday in a flight provided by Angel flight, flown by pilot Darren Ward. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Ms Coffey said she felt “guilty” about the number of people involved in her attempt to see her father and hoped the process could be ”streamlined” for future compassionate cases.

“My dad hates a fuss, so if he knew all this had happened he’d be mortified,” she said.

Ms Coffey said at every turn her attempts to see her dad, whom doctors had warned could die any day, were hampered by bureaucracy.

“Even at the end everything took 24 hours longer than I expected because of some simple thing like a letter hadn’t been properly addressed to the Victoria health department,” she said.

Anna Coffey said she would never have flown to Sydney had she known how hard it would be to transfer to quarantine in Melbourne. Picture: Tim Hunter

Ms Coffey said in the future she hoped it was made clearer to people travelling from overseas how difficult it was to shift quarantine location once in Australia, and also that specific paperwork was required.

“I was surprised there was such overkill for me when I’m fully vaccinated, and yet one of the nurses I spoke with at the hospital only had one dose … how can that be?” she said.

“It was worth it … but it’s caused such a huge drama and so many people had to be involved to make a relatively simple thing happen.”