A woman has spoken of her anguish after her mother died alone in hospital because nurses were unable to call her while the Optus network was down.
Rachel, from Mona Vale on Sydney’s northern beaches, took her mother, Joy, to hospital, which is just 10 minutes away, and was assured someone would call her if her mother deteriorated .
Unfortunately, Joy’s health has deteriorated, but the hospital has been unable to contact Rachel as she is with Optus and the network has gone down.
“I had (the phone) next to me, just in case something happened, so I could get that call and I would be there in 10 minutes to experience those last moments with her,” she said. Chris O’Keefe from 2 GB.
The tragic human cost of the Optus network outage was highlighted when it left a Sydney woman unable to be with her mother in her final moments.
“It wasn’t until my daughter Facetimed me and said ‘Mom, the network is down’ that I thought I should call the hospital to see if anything had happened. “
When she finished, she discovered that her mother had died. Heartbreakingly, the hospital said: “We tried to call you. »
“I just think it’s so sad, when you rely on your phone so much and they let us down, we’ll never get that time with our mom back,” Rachel said.
“It’s absolutely shameful that we didn’t know mum had died because no one could call us.”
The outage continued to cause problems for the grieving family, as they could not contact other family members to let them know that Joy had died.
“Optus has really let us down,” Rachel said. “What kind of compensation can you get?” We can never get those last moments back.
“When you’re going through something this traumatic, the last thing you need is to have someone you trust (let you down).
Rachel, from Mona Vale on Sydney’s northern beaches, took her mother, Joy, to the local hospital, just 10 minutes away, and was assured they would call if her mother deteriorated. But the call never came because she has an Optus phone
“Your phone is your life (in this type of situation). Your mother needs you, I need her (to be sure), I can get a phone call about something so precious to me, and I didn’t.
“They don’t care, there’s no compensation. I’m not a company, I’m nothing to them.
“But they let me down so much,” Rachel said.
