Written by Tammy Milne (PDA TAS Associate Director) and published by ABC News.
When Tammy Milne contracted COVID-19, she said she was “shaken to the core”.
Ms Milne has arthrogrophosis multiplex congenita, which affects her legs. She also has issues with breathing and swallowing.
She uses a wheelchair and has a support worker for several hours a day and overnight.
She is one of many Tasmanians for whom life will not return to “normal” when the state’s public health emergency declaration ends on Thursday night.
Three months ago, Ms Milne was in Hobart visiting her daughter when she contracted COVID-19.
She was staying in a hotel, and, once she tested positive, was unable to receive room service.
Her support worker was unable to help her, and with her daughter also COVID positive, Ms Milne said she was “trapped in a room by myself without any support”.
“It was very traumatic … I was isolated and pretty much in despair,” she said.
Ms Milne organised through the disability COVID hotline to be transported back home to Devonport in the state’s north-west where a support worker stayed with her through her seven days of isolation.
Three months on, Ms Milne said she has also contracted two other viruses, one of which required hospital treatment.
“I think if I got COVID again, I’d be really lucky to survive, and it’s a reality that it will come back again,” she said.
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