Latest / The KIIS Breakfast Wrap with Chris, Amy & Jack / 🕊️ "Go bloody live your life" - Voluntary Assisted Dying patient reveals what led her to this decision...

Transcript

🕊️ "Go bloody live your life" - Voluntary Assisted Dying patient reveals what led her to this decision... · The KIIS Breakfast Wrap with Chris, Amy & Jack

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Day.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The following segment maybe confronting and distressing for some listener discretion,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: it is advised this is tough chat. It's a serious Yeah.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: This is just a little heads up for the parents
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: with any little kids in the car. This next topic
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: might be a little bit sensitive for small years.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: So yep, it may be brooking a bit heavy right now,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: but we are going to chat to any Holland. Annie
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: is twenty six years old and she's been very six
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: since the age of twelve. Right when she was very young.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: It took doctors six years to properly diagnose what was
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: actually going on with her. It was a rare autoimmune
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: condition that attacks the autonomic nervous system. I'm going to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: get any to explain more about it. But by the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: time doctors figured it out, she was eighteen, several of
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: her organs were already failing. It's got to the point
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: where any can now access voluntary assisted dying. She has
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a date where that will occur, but her goal now
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: is to spread awareness and she doesn't want the topic
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: of death to be taboo. So Annie, thank you so
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: much for joining us this morning.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Hi Annie, thank you for having me. Oh gosh, can
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: you tell us a little bit more about your condition,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: and like, when was it that you first realized something
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: was wrong? I guess, going on with you.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I have a condition called autoimmune autonomic aglinopathy.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: So basically, like you said, my immune system attacks my
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: nervous system. So it affects pretty much all the body
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: functions you don't think about, like digestion, heartbreaks, laver, people's
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: gar bladder everything. Basically everything has to function off of it.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: I started getting sick when I was about twelve. I
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: have got glandula fever and ever since then, like I
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: was just really unwell, but it didn't take till probably
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: I was about fourteen fifteen before it became an issue
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: that led me up in the hospital. And I was
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: in there for like nine months, and my vows were
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: shutting down and so were my other organs. But all
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: the normal tests, like the regular things like cancers or
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: common illnesses, they all came back like that. It wasn't that.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: So it wasn't until I really smart doctor her when
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: I went into adult system from the children's after all
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: of that, she basically came in and sent me to Melbourne.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: And in Melbourne they were able to send my bloods
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: off and I got a diagnosis finally at eighteen of
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: that ordering me an ortonomin gang glnopathy yep. And the
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: treatments I've had for my illness. And I've been on
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: a lot of steroids too, so which has led to osioporosis.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: So it's fractures in my bones. So I can't eat
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: and I haven't eaten in a decade. I rely on
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: IB nutrition and fluids and basically I am unable to
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: we so iber capita. And I've had so many surgeries
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: on my bow because my bow kept getting blockages that
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I've had a lot of bow taken out and I
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: now live the stoner bag. So for the last twelve years,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: that's kind of what I've been dealing with.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Is any You're only twenty six now, so all this
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: is going on through high school? You know, young adult?
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Did were you able to do many normal things? Have
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: boyfriends things like that? Yeah?
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Well, my poor parents, I was a real shitty little teenagers. Yeah.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: I went again doing everything you can think of and
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: getting into trouble. So now I do feel lucky that
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: I have at least had had that opportunity. But when
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: I got to about year ten, I got a lot
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: sicker quickly, and basically I couldn't return back to school
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: because I was living in the hospital at that point,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: and I just thought this would all go away, and
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't tell anyone because I just wanted people to
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: see me as me, and I thought, like, whatever's going on,
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Like I just totally lot myself out of a well,
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: and I was like, when I'm better, I'll come back
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: and everything will be back to normal. But that wasn't
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: quite the case, so I missed out.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: At what point did you decide that voluntary assist dying
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: was a choice you wanted to make.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so obviously, I've been fighting this for so long,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: and it's I've basically lived in hospital more than at
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: home in the last twelve years. Not just for me
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: my family, it's affected everyone around us, but the suffering
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: pretty much after a lot of claural damage, and I've
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: had sepsis, which is like a really serious infection in
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: the blood, and I've had that light twenty five times,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: which is rare to even survive at once, to be honest,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: And the damage is so dumb that my teeth are
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: falling out and all these kind of things, and so
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: it started to affect everything I am doing now, and
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: I spent most of my days just trying to survive
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: and live. And it wasn't until I met another young
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: girl that was my age, Lily Tie, and she was
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: at the local hospice where I was, and she was
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: undergoing voluntaroces to dying, which, to be honest, I never
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: I kind of was against it growing up when i'd
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: heard about it, but my views completely changed once I
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: was starting to suffer and watching what Lily went through.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: But I had the privilege to hold her hand why
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: she went underwent bad, and she just went so peaceful,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: and I just knew she was out of pain, and
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: I promised her I wouldn't always keep sharing and trying
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: to make awareness with this story because both of us
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: were left too late and we didn't want emonoss going
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: through what we're going through. And we're having conversations that
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: know at the time, twenty three year olds, you did
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: have to have. And it wasn't until then I was
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: looking at her and I was like, how do you know?
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: How are you so comfortable with it? And she just says,
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: you'll know when you know when you've had enough. And
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: last year I had sepsis and I had to be resuscitated,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: and it was pretty much at that point I was like,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: I was more happy to pass away than I was
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: to survive.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: It is it because your quality of life is just
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: so low now, Like you're in chronic pain every day,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: your livers are failing, and that probably assisted dying almost
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: probably feels like it could be an empowering choice for
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: you as opposed to just living daily in this.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: And I've had so many things done in so many
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: horrible like operations, and it just gets to a point
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: where you're right, there's no quality because I am in
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: pain every day, I am vomity every day and unable
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: to do even half the things on my effort list.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, can we talk about that. You've come up
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: with an effort list which you're slowly ticking off, what
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: kind of stuff and what are you excited to still
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: get done?
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah? So a lot of my things on my list,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: because I mean, it is what it is with my illness.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: But like the bit that makes me the most upset
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: and angry is that I haven't lived a life and
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: I don't have those memories look back on, and you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: like I've always wanted to be a mother and I
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: can't do that, and that's really hard. So I am
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: literally most of the stuff on it is just stuff
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: in life that we all have the privilege of doing
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: that I'm not going to be able to do. So
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: my poor parents as well. I wanted to keep making
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: memories with them that we're happy. So I got like
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: my dad got to see me in a wedding dress
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: and it was a really really special moment. I've managed
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: to you know, collate some things like a ring company
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: reached out, which I'm not like I'm a more sentimental person,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: like I don't care about her stuff, but it was
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: beautiful because I was able to put it away with
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: a letter for my sister went before when she gets married,
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: so that they have, you know a little bit of Yeah.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: So a lot of it is just you know, the
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: rights of passage in life that I want to experience.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: And then some of it is, yeah, like a helicopter
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: ride and just a few fun things because I mean,
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: I'm just trying to make the most quality as I
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: can in the meantime, because I think people don't realize
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: too that this isn't I hate the world word assisted suicide.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: If this isn't assisted suicide and I am dying anyway,
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: you have to have a six to twelve month prot
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: prognosis to even get the VAD, and you've got to
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: have three consultations from different doctors and it's a long process,
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: which I was very blessed to have an incredible team
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: that did it. And when I got accepted, it was
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: weird because I was called my parents in and I
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: was in tears, but I was so happy and relieved
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: because I don't want to be I lost some friends
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: with this as well. But if I lose my TPN,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: which I'm not getting at the moment, I lost my line,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: I have no way of nutrition and it's just going
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: to be like starvation and or not on my terms.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: And this had the power control and having a date
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: now and you're not sharing the date, which you know
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: is good because it's it's again more control for you.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: But knowing the date, what is it like to know
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the date that that the death is happening, Because we
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: all die, right, but we just don't want to think
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: We just look at we don't know when.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: And that's just something well, yeah, that'll never happen to us,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: but clearly it's going to But you are now staring
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: that in the face. Any how do you think about it?
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Well, you're right, we all don't know what's going to
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: happen tomorrow. I mean someone could go on a car
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: accident or something can happen. So and I think we
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: need to change to the subject around death because just
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: like birth, death happens to everyone as well. It's not
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: like it's something we're not all going to go through
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: and it can feel very heavy. But I think the
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: more we talk about it and which coming out with
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: all of this is that al the opportunity for everyone else.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: But b I think it's made conversations a lot easier
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: and people don't really have to like, you know, walk
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: on eggshells about it or any of that. But I
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: think it's just truly a really, really important thing because
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: I've been terrified but my whole life, and I wanted
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: to think about it, but now that I know it's there,
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: it's Yeah, like I said, the only thing that really
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: gets me is that I won't have your opportunities that
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: you know I should be having.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: You Yeah, yeah, Well, if you want to support Annie,
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: I'm head to the go fund me where you can
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: help out. So GoFundMe dot com search for Analise Holland
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: thank you for coming on and being so honest.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Can I just add also, my one thing
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: I want to leave everyone in is like, please make
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: your life like don't waste it. Your health is your wealth,
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: and just truly if you're not happy, do something about it,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: because life is so short and you don't want to
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: wait to it's too late. And I think we need
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: to be a better society to one another because we're
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: all going through something. So I think if anyone could
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: take anything from it is just go bloody live your
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: life and telling you a lot one you love them.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Any that gives me incredible shills. You are doing such
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: an amazing job sharing your story and your Sora dances.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Wow, thank you so much, thank you, thank you.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Good luck on the effort list.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: Hey, if this conversation triggered you, support is available twenty
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: four to seven with Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen