MANY factors aligned for a Ballarat nurse to successfully become the first in Australia to donate her organs after voluntary assisted dying in her hometown, her physician says.
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There was no precedent in the nation with Victoria the first state to pass VAD legislation in 2017 but Grampians Health teams could look to cases of organ donation after assisted dying from Canada, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands.
Marlene Bevern had long talked about wanting to be an organ donor.
Grampians Health Ballarat doctor James Hurley said more than 100 Victorians choose to die with assistance the past three years and many more were unsuccessful because they started the carefully checked process too late.
Dr Hurley, who was Ms Bevern's VAD physician, said of the patients who chose voluntary assisted dying, not many were also eligible for organ donation.
And not many hospitals were in a position to support the whole process.
Ms Bevern was diagnosed last year with motor neurone disease - the same disease popular AFL identity Neale Daniher has called "The Beast" since his diagnosis in 2013.
Within months, the degenerative disease robbed Ms Bevern of her ability to talk and walk and, as ABC News reported, she would soon lose the ability to swallow.
She had first raised the notion of organ donation with her neurologist.
For organ donation to take place, a patient must die in hospital and this is what Ms Bevern chose to do.
"As busy as Ballarat Base Hospital is, we made it work," Dr Hurley said. "She chose a time window of about a week that would work best with the operating theatre, the IUC [intensive care unit] and various things that needed to be done.
"...In Ballarat, a lot of things aligned because it was not just the hospital being supportive, but the ICU, the theatre - teams around the hospital had to all be on board and come together. There were about 40 to 50 people, including the surgical team."
Ms Bevern saved four lives by gifting her lungs, her liver and her kidneys earlier this year.
Typically only two per cent of people die in a way that makes organ donation possible.
DonateLife Victoria's state medical director Rohit D'Costa said Ms Bevern could potentially have started a game-changer with the potential for hundreds more transplants each year. About 1800 Australians are waiting for organ transplants.
Only people who are dying from an incurable, advanced and progressive disease, illness, or medical condition can access VAD. The lengthy process requires two VAD doctors to assess, in Ms Bevern's case, whether she would die within 12 months.
Dr Hurley said for many, just having the permit as an option offered comfort. There was never any obligation to follow through.
VAD patients with advanced-stage active cancers are not eligible for organ donation, but could be found suitable for eye or tissue donation, which was a separate process that did not require a patient to die in hospital.
DonateLife will only meet with a prospective patient and their loved ones, once the VAD permit is approved.
IN OTHER NEWS
Dr Hurley said Grampians Health could offer VAD across the health service's whole region, which included bases in Horsham, Dimboola, Stawell and Edenhope.
He could, and has, travelled as far as Edenhope and back to VAD patients.
VAD must be voluntary, initiated by the person themselves and undertaken face-to-face with a VAD clinician.
Dr Hurley wanted people across the whole region to know there could be the option to die at home.
For Ms Bevern, the experience was made in a dignified environment in hospital.
"It was really positive," Dr Hurley said. "Everyone was really comfortable...There were no tears."
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