Desperate plea as Australian mum fights for life in US

A Melbourne family is desperately trying to raise funds to save their mum’s life after she fell ill in the US.

A Melbourne mum with motor neurone disease (MND) is fighting for her life in the US after falling ill and developing pneumonia.

When Gina Wherrett, 62, was diagnosed with MND in September last year her husband Matt Wherrett promised to seek “every possible avenue to give her the best shot we can give her” – leading them this month to the Healey Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

MND, which has an average life expectancy of two to three years from diagnosis, is called ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in the US.

Tragically, the Wherrett family’s hopes for treatment to improve Ms Wherrett’s quality of life were destroyed when she woke up feeling ill before visiting the clinic one morning for assessments.

Melbourne mum Gina Wherrett, now 62, on her 60th birthday.

She was diagnosed with MND last year and is now fighting for her life in a US hospital.

Mr Wherrett told news.com.au on Thursday his wife deteriorated quickly and was put into the ICU last week, where she remains.

“Gina and I have been together 44 years and we’ve had a great life,” Mr Wherrett said through tears.

“On the day of her diagnosis we went home and we cried, and I promised her we’d be joined at the hip.

“I made a commitment to her that I will do whatever it takes and whatever I can do … I look into her eyes and I don’t want this to be about dollars and cents but that’s what it could come down to.”

The couple’s two sons, Sam and Marcus, are also in Boston by their mother’s side.

The Wherrett family are desperately asking the Australian public to help them, setting up a GoFundMe page with a “conservative” temporary goal of raising $200,000.

Mr Wherrett said they have been told Ms Wherrett requires a tracheostomy to be connected to a ventilator indefinitely.

He said if the surgery is done in the US, she will have to spend time in a rehabilitation clinic, which would cost about $US200,000 ($305,000) upfront on top of the cost of the surgery.

He is also getting quotes for medical repatriation flights in case she were able to fly home for the surgery.

He said one “quick quote” was $US250,000 to $US300,000 (about $380,000 to $460,000) “without knowing full case history”.

The Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Picture: istock

Their current hospital bills up until two days ago, he said, already stood at $US130,000 (about $200,000) with it estimated to continue to cost $US10,000 ($15,000) a day depending on the services.

Mr Wherrett said his wife, a former pharmacy assistant, is a “beautiful soul” and he would “do anything to keep her alive”.

“We have such a beautiful relationship. We finish each other’s sentences,” he said.

He said they would speak on the phone for hours even after he had gone to work for the day and they would do everything they could together.

“Men don’t go shopping with their wives but [for me] it’s a joy to do things like that. We would spend so much time together,” he said. “I can’t have her life determined by a [monetary] value.”

Mr Wherrett said family and friends are the most important thing in Ms Wherrett’s life, and she even spent ten years caring for her mother-in-law before she passed.

She is a big fan of music, including “the modern stuff” like David Guetta.