Andrew Stopps
Mum was one of South Australia’s first people to undergo VAD. She had worked previously in Medical Ethics and also managed a palliative care office and was a patient advocate at Flinders Medical Centre and was following the path of the legislation very closely.
She was experiencing progressive heart failure and earlier this year she was told that her heart would only last another six months at the most, and she was getting progressively weaker. The day it became legal, January 31, she applied.
Mum didn’t want to die at home and went into Laurel Hospice on May 25, and on May 26 at 3.20pm she fell asleep, surrounded by family and love.
Before and after this I wish I had known there were other people available that I could have talked to – people with lived experience who would completely understand what I was going through. Pre-grieving and then grieving the loss afterwards was difficult and unusual.
This is why I decided to set up this Project, in order to support other people going through this ands hopefully to make their journey through VAD is little easier.
I would like to acknowledge Dr Roger Hunt, Palliative Medicine Physician, for your advice and support with this project and who was with mum as she fell asleep.
This is for mum.
Acknowledgements
- Dr Roger Hunt for his advice and support.
- Minnie Gim.
- Images from Pixabay, Shutterstock and Andrew Stopps.
- https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350105314/unique-grief-assisted-dying