Family’s quarantine win for sick daughter
A Waikato family has won its fight to remain together at the bedside of their seriously ill daughter in an Australian hospital.
The about-turn comes after the family faced leaving their daughter behind to take their slot in an isolation facility in order to get back into New Zealand.
Jackie Diprose has been with her 12-year-old daughter, Kate, at the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital since September.
Kate had been receiving specialist cancer treatment when the side effects caused severe neurotoxicity and at the moment she can’t move, speak or see.
Her left lung also collapsed and it had a blood infection, with intensive care treatment needed.
In December, Jackie arranged for Kate’s father Marc, her brother Fletch and sister Jessie, to travel from New Zealand to be with her at the hospital.
They applied for an emergency allocation to hold places at a quarantine facility for their return to New Zealand on December 30.
But Jackie had wanted the family to remain together for a couple of weeks more, when it was expected Kate would show positive signs of recovery.
Her application for a second emergency allocation application had initially been turned down by New Zealand’s Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ).
‘‘We were just hoping to extend it by a few weeks, when we would know more about Kate’s condition. At the moment, she’s so fragile.
‘‘If they [Marc and the two siblings] are in New Zealand and something goes wrong with Kate, they won’t be able to leave isolation to come back for two weeks.’’
Yesterday morning, Jackie said time was running out and it looked like Marc, Jessie and Fletch would fly home today.
But yesterday afternoon, MIQ, under the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, released a statement which said it had reviewed the case and a new emergency allocation had been granted under ‘‘extraordinary circumstances’’.
The ministry said the person assessing the second request was unaware of the family’s situation and its first application. Without that crucial information, it did not meet criteria for approval.
‘‘On behalf of MBIE we wish the family well and apologise for any additional stress incurred as part of this process.
‘‘We have requested a case review to minimise the chance of this happening again.’’
Jackie said having the entire family at the hospital was a big part of Kate’s recovery.
‘‘A doctor asked her once, what would be the one thing he could do to make her feel better and she said, bring my family over.’’
Kate was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when she was 3 and has relapsed five times in the past 9.5 years.
She has been in the Melbourne hospital for CAR T-cell therapy.
‘‘They harvest the T-cells from out of your blood and send them to America where they are genetically modified to attack a protein in the B-cells, that’s what has killed Kate’s cancer.
‘‘Kate is cancer-free but the side effects, for Kate, which are 1-400, is neurotoxicity.’’
Kate entered the specialist treatment after Starship Children’s Hospital ‘‘got the ball rolling’’ connecting with the Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia, which used T-cell therapy.
‘‘Starship began talking to the specialists in Philadelphia and the doctors in Melbourne. They decided Kate was a good candidate for the therapy.
‘‘We needed approval for the [Ministry of Health] high-cost funding pool which pays for specialist treatment, otherwise we would have to pay for it ourselves.’’
Jackie said she was grateful the funding was approved and arrangements were made to move Kate to Melbourne, in the middle of the Victoria state Covid-19 alert levels.
The treatment couldn’t be done in New Zealand.
Kate’s outlook was positive, Jackie said, but it could be six to eight weeks before she could fly home because of her collapsed lung.
‘‘If the lung stays the same, it will be a health flight home. Our hope is that we will see improvement and we can catch a normal flight home.’’
The family had been staying at an apartment near the Melbourne hospital.
‘‘My husband and I have been taking turns being with Kate. Spending time with the other two children has been very therapeutic.
‘‘We have a ping-pong table which gets a lot of use and gives us a lot of laughter and they say laughter is good medicine.
‘‘You can spend too much time mulling over things, that’s not beneficial. We are just looking forward and working on an end goal.’’
Jackie said the family had been overwhelmed by the support of staff at the hospital and messages of support from home.
The family’s Christian faith had also helped them navigate the challenging time.
‘‘We know it is no small feat that we are here, we are really grateful to the New Zealand and Australian health systems, to provide us with this option.
‘‘To everyone in Matamata, where we are from, we are feeling loved big time and very grateful.’’