Hope for dying mum waiting on ACC

ACC says it will fast-track dying mum Selina Gilfedder’s compensation claim and has committed to a onemonth deadline.

This comes just days after the Herald revealed the 38-year-old’s struggle against ACC, which requested she sign off on a six-month extension for it to make a decision on her treatment injury claim.

The mum-of-four whose cancer was not diagnosed for almost two years feared she would not be alive by then, saying she felt “bullied into accepting that time-frame”.

Gilfedder now says she has hope that she will live long enough to see the decision and get justice. She was told on Thursday her claim “fitted the criteria to be managed as a rapidly deteriorating claim”.

This meant it could be fast-tracked by getting an ACC assessor to work out the amount she could be entitled to while external medical experts provided opinions on the claim as part of the decision-making process. ACC also agreed to reduce the extension period to one month from six.

Gilfedder said she wasn’t told fasttracking her claim was even an option until her story was published. “I was shocked they were willing to negotiate. It’s a complete turnaround.”

ACC maintains it always planned to fast-track her claim. A spokesman said some aspects needed clarifying: “The implication of a two-year delay in diagnosis could potentially make a significant difference to a claim where the injury is disease progression of an underlying cancer. We have now requested earlier medical notes from the GP, which will then go to the external specialist considering the medical information already sent.”

If ACC finds her disease progressed due to lack of treatment and she dies by the time a decision is made, she will miss out on $130,000 of compensation — not including the money her family will be given.

Gilfedder’s story dates to January 2017 when she saw her doctor. Between then and October last year, she went to her GP at least seven times complaining of bleeding from her bottom and severe pain. On New Year’s Eve she was rushed to hospital and a large cancerous mass was removed from her bowel. Doctors said it was too advanced to treat and gave her about a year to live.