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By Philip Nitschke
Janet Mills was the second person
to die using the Rights of the Terminally Ill
(ROTI) Act in the Northern Territory.
A resident of South Australia, Janet came
to Darwin in December 1996. She had suffered for
some 10 years from a rare disease known as Mycosis
Fungoides. This is the same disease that the well
known British actor - Paul Eddington - from the
series 'Yes Minister' died from in
1995.
Since diagnosis, Janet had received
every known treatment for her condition and in
her first phone call, told me she had simply had
enough. There was no further treatment that she wanted to have.
Upon her arrival in Darwin Janet
was admitted to the palliative care unit of the
Darwin Private Hospital. While the admission went
smoothly, because I could find no specialist to
sign her paperwork needed for the ROTI law to
be used, Janet was left high and dry.
The long and the short of it was
that no Northern Territory doctor would vouch that Janet was,
dying. This was despite the expert opinion provided
by Adelaide oncologist, Dr Jack Russell. According
to Russell, Janet was terminally ill and should
be allowed to use the law. The law, however, demanded
that a NT specialist had to say the same thing.
After days of ringing round, and
a chorus of 'nos', I finally rang
Darwin orthopedic surgeon, Steve Baddeley. And
Janet found her specialist.
At this point, Adelaide dermatologist Dr Warren
Weightman was scathing saying that there was a
range of treatments which Janet had not yet tried.
Janet’s response was to note how strange
it was that a doctor who had been closely involved
in her care and who had previously run out of
ideas, could now discover a raft of
treatments that were previously unknown to her.
Luckily, the ROTI Act’s definition
of ‘terminal illness’ was ‘an
illness which, in reasonable medical judgment
will, in the normal course, without the application
of extraordinary measures or of treatment unacceptable
to the patient, result in the death of the patient.’
And Janet had had enough.
On 2 January, 1997, Janet died in
her husband’s arms. Despite how the movies
portray it, death is rarely beautiful. Janet’s death,
when it finally occurred, was as good as it gets. |
