Plea for new laws
Terminally ill man suffering and dying
TRAPPED in a failing body ravaged by the late stages of a terminal disease, Owen Burdock is pleading for Queensland’s politicians to allow him to die with dignity.
Sitting in a wheelchair, his hand irreversibly contorted, his knees constantly trying to cross over, drooling uncontrollably, needing his eyes pried open, barely able to utter a word, and yet with a clearly functioning mind, Mr Burdock’s life is a living hell he is unable to escape.
With just months to live, Mr Burdock wants to be first in line to end his life if Queensland’s politicians pass the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021, which is at present
being debated in parliament.
A Townsville resident “on and off” for the past three decades, Mr Burdock, 50, used to run a successful gardening business called Birdy’s Shortcut Mowing & Rubbish Removal, before succumbing to his illness.
Struggling to walk properly and often falling over, he was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder seven years ago called progressive supranuclear palsy, and given seven years to live.
Causing problems with movement, walking and balance, and eye movement, the disease worsens progressively over time, causing weakness by damaging certain parts of the brain above nerve cell clusters that control eye
movements. The Queensland government says the underlying principle of voluntary assisted dying is to provide an option “for people at the end of life who are suffering and dying”.
Asked whether he was “suffering and dying”, he wrote on a magnetic whiteboard, “every f---ing day”.
With his fingers making the shape of a gun, he pointed to his head.
Supported financially by the NDIS, Mr Burdock has a team of nurses led by Kelly Simmons, who has spent two years watching helplessly as he’s gone progressively downhill.
“Owen said to me at his 50th (birthday), ‘you know, this will be the last one, I
won’t ’ make it to me 51st’, and that’s the way it’s looking,” Ms Simmons said.
“It’s not going to happen. He doesn’t want to be there
for it. What will happen eventually, is that Owen’s body will contort and twist up, like a cripple laying sideways in a bed in a foetal position.”
In the next few months, she expected him to die from malnutrition, dehydration, pneumonia or drowning in his own secretions – unless he passed away on his own terms.
Questioned whether they had a message for local politicians planning on voting against the Bill, Mr Burdock and his carers extended the MPS an invitation.
“Ask them to come and provide care for the day for him. Don’t just stand here. Walk in his shoes. Sit in a wheelchair and see if they want to live like this,” she said.