THEY SHOULD’VE TOLD US
THE pregnant widow of Alex “Chumpy” Pullin says emergency service personnel should inform grieving spouses about the possibility of posthumous sperm retrieval immediately after a death.
Ellidy Pullin, 29, shared further insight into the timesensitive race to harvest her partner’s semen in the wake of his tragic drowning last year, speaking on a recent episode of a podcast alongside co-host Chloe Fisher.
Ms Pullin last month announced she was expecting the couple’s first child through IVF after posthumously collecting the champion snowboarder’s sperm. She spoke with 7News Gold Coast, alongside Mr Pullin’s parents, in the days following: “My main reason for going on the news is to spread awareness about sperm retrieval – so many people don’t know about it,” she said.
Mr Pullin, 32, passed away on July 8 last year after suffering a suspected shallow water blackout while free diving at
Palm Beach. “I just think the police officers, the ambulance officers and stuff on the day (of the tragedy), I think it should have almost been something that they said to us that day. Your soulmate has died, I was there, a mess, they were asking me what did you guys do this morning? How was your relationship?
“I think that they should have the knowledge to say ‘oh my god you were trying for a baby? Do you know that if you act really crucially in the next 24 hours, 36 hours, you can actually retrieve his sperm?’”
When questioned on the matter, a Queensland Ambulance spokesman said the service was still considering the role of paramedics in this scenario: “For expected deaths, this will already have been considered. For unexpected deaths, the situation is extremely raw and it would not be appropriate for paramedics to get involved at that point. The Coronial services would be better placed.”
Queensland Police declined to comment.
Queensland Legislation states sperm can be removed posthumously where a designated officer has no grounds to believe the deceased would object to the removal.
An IVF specialist must be involved to retrieve sperm from a deceased person within a clinically recommended time frame of 24-36 hours after death.
“It was about midday already; I think we had until about 6pm that night,” said Mrs Fisher.
“It turns out because Chumpy’s parents were already (on the Coast) and everyone was on board with this, we were able to get an affidavit done and all this legal documentation written up so we didn’t actually have to get up in front of a court.
“The lawyer, he must have done a week’s worth of work in two hours or something.”
Ms Pullin, who only recently changed her last name from Vlug, said she believed her long-time love had a helping hand in the matter: “I feel like Chumpy was pulling some strings from up there making this all happen for sure.”