Wife of brain surgery patient slams Queensland premier: “An abomination”
A "fragile" man who is still recovering from his brain surgery became overwhelmed with emotion while his wife revealed how he was left bleeding profusely in a hotel after being denied a quarantine exemption.
Gary Ralph and his wife, Wendy Child, travelled from Brisbane to Sydney so Dr Charlie Teo could remove an incurable tumour from the 71-year-old's brain last week.
The couple had requested a hotel quarantine exemption so Mr Ralph could recover from the comfort of his home while he was in such a delicate state, however he faced numerous setbacks.
"I think you are the sort of case that exemptions are for. I wish that you could get one, I wish that I had a magic wand and I wish this wasn't happening to you," A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw told the couple on Wednesday night.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk claimed she was appalled after Mr Ralph was forced into hotel quarantine.
The brain surgery patient was also instructed to catch a taxi or Uber with the windows down to his chemotherapy appointments.
Ms Child has slammed the premier’s lack of action.
Mr Ralph was moved to a medihotel with care on Wednesday and an ambulance was organised to take him to and from chemotherapy appointments but that did not get there in time before the man lost his ability to speak, peripheral vision and feeling in his right arm — had an accident and split his hand open, which bled profusely in the hotel.
"I am not exactly sure how he did it because I did not see, but he ran into the wall because of his vision… he came in and was bleeding quite profusely," Ms Child told A Current Affair.
"It was a bad knock, I didn't know what to do. I quickly bandaged it all up."
Ms Child said her husband refused to go to the hospital as she could not go with him.
Ms Child said the medical team feared the accident could have been caused by a seizure brought on by stress.
"Gary has never suffered a seizure before but with this brain tumour, he is susceptible to seizure," she said.
"The warning is that if he continues to have these little seizures, it could develop into a full-blown seizure."
Ms Child said that despite there being a new nurse at the hotel, it "will not work for Gary".
She criticised the premier for simply organising a change of transport rather than a proper exemption.
"It's about getting Gary into an environment that he knows, where he is going to be fed proper nutritional meals, where he can rest, where he can walk around blindfolded and will not run into things that become a danger," Ms Child said.
The distressed wife said Ms Palaszczuk was "passing the buck" and demanded leadership from her.
"I looked at Gary and I just said 'I can't believe this she's passing the buck, she did not address it whatsoever'," Ms Child said.
"She is supposed to be the premier of the state, so to me she is the one, that's where the buck stops.
“She can't pass it on to the health minister or anyone else, and if she chooses to do that, then to me she shouldn't be at the helm."
The A Current Affair host said the situation was "an abomination" while an off-camera Mr Ralph became "very emotional".
"Every minute is precious, and he is fragile, he is exactly why exemptions exist," Ms Grimshaw said.
She further turned to the camera to plead for the Queensland premier to show "some compassion".
"I honestly never ever thought that this would happen in Australia," Ms Child added.
Ms Child said they will not give up their fight to return home despite there being a nurse at their new hotel.
She said the new hotel is more comfortable and the food is better, but she still wants Mr Ralph at home.