Woman reveals terrifying Clarence Valley Covid experience

The North Coast woman has opened up about her family’s experience in the hopes of educating and preparing others for the unexpected battles they were never told about.

Northern NSW Health authorities have made contact with Clarence Valley mum Alison Miller following her family’s Covid-19 experience at Grafton Base Hospital emergency department.

“Northern NSW Local Health District has contacted the Miller family to apologise for the distress caused,” chief executive Wayne Jones told the Daily Examiner.

“Northern NSW Local Health District has well established protocols in place for both the care of patients with Covid-19 and their discharge from hospital. We are reviewing the family’s concerns.

In November, Ms Miller shared her family’s chilling experience with Covid and the lack of medical attention received after contracting the Delta variant in October.

In an open letter written in November, Ms Miller explained how one family at her child’s school who were infected with Covid, led to over 400 people in the South Grafton area quarantined and at least 40 people testing positive. Among the 40 was Ms Miller and her family.

“Every night my son gives us good night kisses and we had no idea any of us had been anywhere near Covid, so kisses and cuddles good night got all three of us sick,” she said.

South Grafton Public School was closed on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 after members of the school community tested positive to COVID-19.

“When we got our diagnosis, NSW Health really were excellent and supportive, additionally our doctor called us regularly and always called us back if we needed her.”

Grateful to have received her first dose of the vaccine, Ms Miller said she was lucky she didn’t get seriously ill, though described it as the worst flu she had ever experienced.

“H1N1 has nothing on this. I lost my taste and sense of smell, everything was an effort, I had a cough and terribly blocked sinuses and the accompanying headaches,” she said.

Clarence Valley mum Alison Miller has shared her terrifying experience with Covid after her family contracted the virus in October 2021.

“It lasted for at least nine days before I felt like I was finally turning the corner to wellness.”

However, Ms Miller said her husband’s experience was much worse, with terrifying insomnia-induced psychosis.

“I had to call an ambulance when he woke me at 5am panicking that he could not breathe,” she said.

“He had had a dream he couldn’t breathe well, and began to have a panic attack while asleep and when he woke up he was already struggling to breath and thought he was having a heart attack.”

At one stage, Ms Miller found her husband face down on the bed not moving and not answering her.

“I almost fell. He hadn’t heard me come in and was simply trying to stop the pain (in his abdomen). He had a 42 fever again so I called triple-0,” she said.

Ms Miller later discovered that acute stomach pain was another symptom of the Delta variant.

Alison Miller drove her husband to Grafton Base Hospital emergency department after he was suffering from Covid-induced acute abdominal pain.

After a 45-minute wait for an ambulance, Ms Miller took her husband to the Grafton Base Hospital emergency department. After waiting for two hours in their car, Ms Miller was told to come back the next morning.

Husband found wandering the road

When she returned at 6am the following day, Ms Miller was horrified to find her husband wandering the road outside the hospital grounds waiting for her.

“They just let him leave,” she said.

“They did not make sure of any chain of custody, no one made sure this highly infectious man was getting into a car immediately and not touching or going near anyone outside,” she said.

Ms Miller said their GP proved to be their saviour along with a Covid doctor in Lismore to guide them through their recovery.

Although officially recovered, Ms Miller said their next challenge is to navigate the multitude of side effects from the virus that will appear out of nowhere, including flu symptoms, memory loss, and insomnia.

“I also have developed a fear of public places and for people coming too close to me, I feel a panic attack coming on if someone comes too close to me in the supermarket,” she said.

“I also have developed some irrational reactions to things on tv, emergency ER visits, someone in a fictional program being sick, it takes me back to my bedroom and my husband not responding and I panic, and I cry.”

NSW Health was contacted for comment regarding Ms Miller and her husband’s experience.