QLD border closure causes delays for IVF couple, boy with cancer

A NSW couple set to undergo IVF almost lost their eggs when the Queensland border closed and the IVF clinic refused to allow them a medical exemption. A mother stuck in quarantine as her son fights cancer. This is how the border closure is affecting everyday Aussies. READ THEIR STORIES

• Tragic border mum’s desperate fight to save twin
• Queensland border-hoppers flock to NSW hospital

IVF is all about timing and injections and hormones. It is stressful enough without throwing in a border closure, which nearly cost a couple their precious embryos.

Samantha and Clint Priestland live in Evans Head in Northern NSW and they opted to use a Brisbane IVF clinic two hours north as it was the closest one to them.

After months of planning, Mrs Priestland began her daily stimulation injections on Sunday August 2. But just over a week later, days before she was due to have her eggs collected, Queensland slammed the border shut to everyone from NSW.

“On the Monday, 10th of August, I had my ultrasound done (locally) and I was very stimulated and bloated and uncomfortable and then the Queensland clinic got the results and then with the border closed they said they weren’t able to accept anyone from NSW and they weren’t willing to write a letter to give us a medical exemption,” Ms Priestland said.

Samantha and Clint Priestland were halfway though their IVF when the QLD border closed. Picture: Danielle Smith

She said he Queensland clinic’s advice was to “stop taking medication and we’ll see you when the border opens again.

“I was a mess, especially when you are pumping yourself with hormones, there were a lot of tears when that happened.

“We started the planning in January getting pre-tests done and all of that, so it was the build-up, this is the month we are doing it, you’ve started the medication and I hate needles and getting injected every day was not fun and then it was great, this week will create out little embryos and then one phone call to say sorry, no, it was extremely upsetting,” the 31-year-old said.

The Genea app has helped the couple track how their embryos grow and they get to watch the process.

Samantha and Clint Priestland have watched their embryos grow on a new app.

Her husband madly rang around NSW IVF clinics to see if they would take on their case.

A mad dash to Sydney on August 14 created four embryos.

Back home the couple could watch the embryos grow using a Grow app which shared images from the Geri incubator that photographs the embryos’ daily growth.

“We could log into an app, day one and day three and day five, it has a zoomed up photo and a little video sped up so you can watch them transform,” Ms Priestland said.

Next month, the couple will have one of the now frozen embryos implanted.

BOY FIGHTS CANCER WITH MUM STUCK IN HOTEL

A NSW family is being put through hell because of Queensland’s border closure, with the mum locked in hotel quarantine as their young son battles a cancer relapse.

Four-year-old Arlo Ozols from Bangalow in northern NSW appeared to have beaten acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in February but, last week, parents Rowan and Erin were told he had relapsed.

But Arlo’s treatment team is at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, and border closure rules mean his mum has been put in quarantine in a hotel in the city while his dad is in isolation at the children’s hospital.

They have all been tested and all tested negative.

Arlo Ozols, aged four, has had a cancer relapse and is back in hospital.

Arlo and his dad Rowan Ozols, who is in isolation at the hospital.

Mr Ozols said the stress of the border closure rules had made life even more traumatic for the family.

“This isn’t about the hospital, they have been amazing, but they are dictated to by the government regulations,” he said.

“With the Queensland government’s forcible separation of our family, I am trapped in the hospital room trying to keep Arlo’s spirits high, getting little reprieve, while my wife is quarantined in a city hotel. It is frustrating and cruel. Arlo needs his mum. There have been no cases in Bangalow for over 100 days but we are just outside the bubble.

“Watching our little boy go through this is heartbreaking. It’s dictated by politics.”

The couple have applied to the chief medical officer for an exemption to allow Mrs Ozols to see her sick boy.

“I feel I have more chance of coming into contact with COVID at the hotel,” Mrs Ozols said. “There are more (cases) in Queensland (than Bangalow) and yet I’m separated from my sick son and my supportive husband. It’s just disgusting people’s health and mental health is being compromised in this manner.”

Mr Ozols said it was particularly tough given this was a relapse for Arlo.

“He is four now and finished treatment in February and we thought that was the end of it,” he said.

“We thought this was the year we would get back to ­normality — then COVID hit.

“My wife is so fragile and traumatised by the whole thing.”

To help the Ozols go to gofundme.com/f/­arlo039s-fight-with-cancer-round-2

Originally published as QLD border closure causes delays for IVF couple, boy with cancer