Lisa’s children and grandchildren

As many know, our beautiful mother Lisa was chosen to be another Angel in heaven.

Mum was one of the most powerful and strong woman most people have ever know, that led her life by being kind and caring to anyone that was blessed to meet her, she had 6 children and 6 grandchildren that she loved unconditionally and was unbelievably proud of, she did not have the easiest of lives and still through everything she went through, was an incredible mother and friend to everyone, she will be sorely missed by so so many.

To understand how this came to be I’ll have to start by going back 5 years ago when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cervical cancer which thankfully had not spread and after a full hysterectomy and completing radiation was on the road to being considered in remission which she handled like a soldier. Unfortunately during the surgery her abdomen wall was nicked which created a hernia over time, waiting years to be approved for corrective surgery she was finally put on a waiting list which she was on for just over 18 months, by this point the hernia was very large and painful for her but she still continued to work full time as a cleaner right up until the day before her surgery. The hernia surgery was only meant to take approximately 2 hours, we waited and waited, called to check and finally went in to wait for her to be out of surgery, after almost 10 hours we were told she was finally in the recovery room, the doctor that did the procedure explained how complex this ended up being due to having to wait so long for surgery and added she was frustrated by the lack of care by the original doctors and that it should have never been left this long. After a few days in hospital recovering well she went home to stay with her eldest daughter Amy to be taken care of as needed, with a drain for fluid from the surgery site she went for walks around the house, had dinner with her family and was doing so well. About 2 weeks after the surgery she said she wasn’t feeling right and her head felt fuzzy so Amy took her into emergency to make sure she was okay, they did a few checks and were worried she may have a blood clot in her brain or somewhere else but later confirmed that she had a minor stroke which could have been due to only recently having a major surgery and being under anaesthesia for such a prolonged time and they also said they could see a couple of small lesions on her lungs but to just follow up with a lung specialist down the track. Mum started to get a lot of back pain and shortness of breath which we spoke to the doctors about and they were going to send her for a spinal scan and the shortness of breath was chalked up to being in so much pain but also having to spend a lot of time in bed. Mums mobility decreased over the weeks which went from needing to use a cane to the point of not being able to even stand up out of bed on her own, Amy showered her and helped her use the bathroom and did anything she needed, along with the help of her grandkids keeping her company watching movies with her and running to get her any food or drinks at her request, they often said nan was the queen of the farm now and they were her humble servants which we all giggled over often, I know how difficult it was for her to be in this position because she was SO independent and never wanted to burden anyone but we never felt that way, we were happy to be there to help her recover and be loved how she deserved. Mum booked all the appointments which were taking forever to come around and we made the decision that going back into hospital would be the best option, that way they can make sure she is taken care of medically as quickly as possible rather than waiting weeks or months for the appointments to come around all while barely being able to sit up in bed by herself and being in extreme pain constantly but this is where things took a turn for the worse. The hospital did a scan on mums chest to check why she was having trouble breathing which confirmed she had fluid on her right lung and a drain would have to be inserted and this would ease her of the struggle, we were advised it’s a very common and straightforward procedure and not to worry, when the doctor was inserting the drain mum was concerned, she kept asking if he knew what he was doing and that it was causing her extreme pain and “didn’t feel right” but the doctor persisted and suddenly mum crashed and went into cardiac arrest, she had to be resuscitated and was then kept under “close observation”.. hours went by and the doctors were confused as to why there was blood draining and why mum was so poorly and on the verge of crashing multiple times, eventually a senior doctor who was called to help with treatment options ordered a scan to check the lungs and this scan confirmed that the drain inserted was accidentally inserted into her liver, she was rushed into emergency surgery to try and repair the damage they had caused, needing multiple blood transfusions and was sent to the ICU, we met some lovely doctors there that were unbelievably sorry for what the hospital had done and were very attentive and kind to mum over the following days, theses days were constantly on the verge of losing her, becoming stable and then right back to critical condition, during scans they confirmed mum had what they believed to be cancer that had come back from the cervical cancer that started spreading rapidly, due to the multiple surgeries and hospital stays, mum was fighting off multiple infections and still had the fluid on her lungs that she originally went in for, she was having hallucinations and didn’t want to be left alone, she had been on oxygen prongs and then a pre-breathing tube mask (which she despised) and she begged to be taken home, her eldest daughter spoke with every nurse and every doctor to ensure she was taken care of and to set the goals that needed to be reached to take her home, she started to improve and was put back to the oxygen prongs and was doing lung exercise to further improve, was sitting up eating and talking with her family, which gave us all hope that we would be able to take her home, possibly even do some chemo to give us more time and we all had wonderful ideas of things we would take her to do and photos, notes and keepsakes would would create over the coming months fighting off the cancer that had come back.. on the 13/08 she was cleared to go to a normal ward and was moved shortly after her daughter left around 10pm, by 3am her condition worsened and they told her that she would need to have a breathing tube inserted to keep her alive and can be given medication to help her sleep as she passes, the nurses told her they will call her children to come be with her and like the brave and strong mother she has always been she told them she didn’t want us called and didn’t want to be kept alive that way and to call us in the morning once she had gone. She may have passed away alone but she did it just how she chose and whilst protecting her children from watching her fade.

My mother was an incredible woman and will forever be remembered that way.

Our mother was taken from us too soon and ultimately because our medical system FAILED HER! We are ensuring that a full investigation is being done over multiple matters to make sure this doesn’t happen to someone else’s loved one. We have all been through an extremely traumatic experience and are having to come to terms with so many different things and have many things to organise not only for the funeral but for the investigations that are currently underway and the complaints to the medical board that we will be heavily involved in.

These funds will go towards helping her children and grandchildren have keepsakes created, to assist in bills and living expenses while having to take time off work whilst grieving and anything else in between. We appreciate every person that has taken the time to read this and/or donate.

Rest easy now mumma, I will continue to fight for you and make sure justice comes