Nothing could have prepared Anne-Marie Rudd for the moment her daughter Tegan Roberts, 25, asked her if she was going to die as she lay in the ICU of a Balinese hospital on Sunday.
Tegan had been admitted on Friday when she collapsed after feeling dehydrated and complaining of “feeling disgusting” during what was supposed to be the “holiday of a lifetime” to celebrate her little sister Maddy’s 18th birthday.
Tegan’s mother Anne-Marie, who lives in Nowra on the New South Wales south coast, told FEMAIL she knew something was desperately wrong when Tegan messaged her saying she felt she needed to “catch a plane go home and go straight to the hospital.
He then stopped responding to his mother’s text messages.
Tegan was born with cystic fibrosis and is no stranger to hospitals or feeling a little unwell, especially when the weather is hot. But this time he felt different.
Tegan Roberts is in the ICU in Bali after dehydrating and collapsing on Friday
Tegan sent text messages to her mother complaining about not feeling well, but Anne-Marie didn’t realize how bad things were.
Then Tegan sent this surprising message.
It wasn’t until he stopped responding that Anne-Marie realized she needed to be by his side.
“I couldn’t believe how bad she was when I saw her. She kept asking me if she was going to die,” the worried mother said from Bali.
Hours after Anne-Marie arrived at her bedside, joining Tegan’s father, younger sister and stepmother, Tegan began to collapse.
She is now unresponsive and on a ventilator, and her mother is unsure if she will ever be conscious again.
Anne-Marie arranged for Tegan to be transferred to Perth on Tuesday, where she can be treated by doctors who are more “up to date” with cystic fibrosis.
The travel insurance company is still figuring out who will pay for that flight.
“They made me sign a form saying I would pay the $130,000 (for the return plane) if the travel insurance didn’t,” he said.
Tegan with her mother, right, and her grandmother. left. Her grandmother died a month before she went to the hospital in Bali.
“I don’t know how I’m going to do that, but step by step, bring Tegan home.”
Tegan was very excited to go to Bali, a trip organized by her father for her sister Maddy’s 18th birthday.
It was the first time I was abroad. And although Anne-Marie had reservations, she wanted her daughter to be able to have the experience.
Tegan was given a “second chance at life” four years ago when she received a double lung transplant, and she was determined to make the most of it.
He described his new lungs as the best gift of his life and revealed that without them he would not have “made it to Christmas 2020”.
Tegan and her grandmother were inseparable
Tegan and her friends: Her mother said she was very popular and had a good support network in Nowra.
Anne-Marie sobbed as she realized she doesn’t know what Tegan would want if she died.
“We never talked about it, even after everything she’s been through,” he said.
The loving mother is still in deep grief following the death of her own mother, Tegan’s grandmother.
‘The day I landed in Bali marked a month since my mother died. Her and Tegan were best friends,’ she cried.
‘I just know that Tegan wouldn’t want to suffer, she doesn’t want to live like that. I think maybe she’s had enough.
“But we will see if the doctors can stabilize her in Perth. If they can’t, we may have to make some difficult decisions about her life support.”
Tegan’s father and stepmother left Bali back to Sydney on Tuesday morning, while Anne-Marie and Maddy stayed in Bali until Tegan returned home.
‘I can’t travel with her on the plane, there isn’t enough space. But I want to say goodbye to her. And then I’ll get on the next plane with Maddy and we’ll meet her in Perth,” he said.
The disability support worker will have no income while she is at her daughter’s bedside and doesn’t know how she will get the money for the plane if the insurance fails.
“I took out my super when she had her double lung transplant, so I could be with her,” he said.
His friends have started a GoFundMe page to offer support, they even told Daily Mail Australia they would pay their own mortgage compensation money and sort it out later.
Tegan, pictured here with her best friend, was so excited to go to Bali.
Anne-Marie confessed that she doesn’t know what she needs right now; She just knows that she has to be there for her daughters.
“I feel sorry for Maddy too; this wasn’t how her trip to Bali for her birthday was supposed to go,” he said.
“She’s been in and out of hospitals while I took her sister to appointments her whole life, it’s not fair.”
Maddy only went to visit her sister in the hospital in Bali once, before she was given the medical vaccine.
“She doesn’t want to see her like that,” Anne-Marie said.
