Mornington Island amputee forced to live in hospital as $5.7m remote patient facility sits empty in Townsville
A heartbroken amputee says her worst fear is dying alone in a hospital bed, 840km away from family, as she waits for a room at a $5.7m patient facility sitting empty in Townsville.
Townsville
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A heartbroken amputee says her worst fear is dying alone in a hospital bed, 840km away from family, as she waits for a room at a $5.7m patient facility sitting empty in Townsville.
Due to a lack of accommodation options in Townsville, Mornington Island mum Ruth Escott has been left with no other option than to live in Townsville University Hospital or be forced into homelessness.
The 52-year-old — who has diabetes and renal disease — has been in Townsville receiving medical treatment, including dialysis three times a week.
She was facing possible homelessness after she was asked to leave the motel she was staying at last Thursday due to it being fully booked.
Unable to find a suitable alternative, Ms Escott reached out to Yumba-Meta to see if she could stay in one of the empty rooms at Karingal, a $5.7m short-term accommodation facility for remote patients who come to Townsville for treatment.
She says they were unable to help because the facility was not operational due to issues with securing state government funding over the past two years.
Sitting in her wheelchair outside Townsville University Hospital, Ms Escott used her iPad to communicate while opening up about her desperate circumstance to the Townsville Bulletin.
She spoke about her fears of dying alone in the hospital and the crippling loneliness of being so far away from her family on Mornington Island while she underwent treatment.
“I feel lonely without my family being able to come here and spend time with me,” she said.
“I hate that I have to move from motel to motel.
“Sometimes I feel like I’d rather die than keep moving around like this.”
The mum of five initially came to Townsville in January 2018 to get her leg amputated.
She was eventually able to return to her remote community and do home dialysis with the help of her daughter.
But when she had a stroke in June 2021, doctors said she was now considered a high-risk patient and the island wasn’t equipped to care for her.
Ms Escott has been alone in Townsville ever since and has only been able to go home twice in two years — once for a Christmas visit and the other time to attend a funeral.
“I like to be home,” she said. “I feel the dialysis doctors don’t want me to go home.”
Thuringowa MP Aaron Harper said he believed “good news” for the organisation was coming soon.
Yumba-Meta chief executive Dushy Thangiah said they needed about $1.5m a year in operational funding to hire staff and run the facility.
Originally published as Mornington Island amputee forced to live in hospital as $5.7m remote patient facility sits empty in Townsville
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