Euthanasia Bill: Terminally ill Victorians given a lifeline

TERMINALLY ill Victorians have been given a lifeline by the passing of the Euthanasia Bill. But my own mind is on a woman called Nia Sims, writes Susie O’Brien.

TERMINALLY ill Victorians have been given a lifeline by the passing of the Euthanasia bill in the parliament.

Congratulations to the courageous men and women who helped make this happen.

And best wishes to those who will may take up the option of having a dignified death on their own terms.

My mind is on a Victorian woman I met back in August called Nia Sims. Back then Nia told me she needed a “bit of luck”. She’s not wrong.

She’s got scleroderma, a chronic auto-immune disease that affects her connective tissues.

This bill could be the bit of luck she’s been looking for.

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Nia Sims after the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 passed in the Victorian Legislative Council in Melbourne. Picture: AAP Image/David Crosling

The problem is that the gap between life and death that can be days, weeks or even months. During this phase, terminally ill people aren’t really alive, but they aren’t yet dead. Although palliative care can take the edge of the pain, it often doesn’t stop the suffering.

Nia, a nurse, saw this first-hand while she watched her father Greg die from brain cancer in enormous distress. Greg’s story has been told in an amazing video by Go Gentle Australia. You can watch it here. http://www.stopthehorror.com

Be warned, it’s R18+. It is designed to be “virtually unwatchable” and is so confronting there is a stop button on the screen.

“Right at the end the look on his face was tense. There was less pain, more terror. It broke us mentally,” Nia said.

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Nia watched her father die from brain cancer in enormous distress. Picture: Thinkstock

She knows there is no guarantee her father would have taken any medication to end his own life but she would have liked him to have the choice.

Since her own diagnosis 20 years ago, Ms Sims has had an “up and down journey including several severe declines”.

Although her health is stable at present, at any time her condition could degenerate quite quickly.

“I have an awareness that the two most likely ways this disease might take me is gasping for breath or by starvation,” she says.

“I am my father’s daughter. I would tough it out but I want the choice to end it when it becomes intolerable.”

Now Nia, and many others like her, have been given that choice. To those who helped make this happen, I salute you.

Follow Susie on Twitter @susieob.